CLAYTON, Ga. — Couples queued outside the Rabun County Civic Center in downtown Clayton and waited for their turn beneath the lights. A photographer called names. Heels clicked across pavement. Inside, guests stepped into a room built for bidding and backing a cause.
The Sweetheart Ball returns each year to raise money for F.A.I.T.H., Fight Abuse Inside the Home. The organization operates a Child Advocacy Center that serves Habersham, Rabun, Stephens, and Banks counties. The gala funds 24-hour crisis response, forensic exams, therapy, and court advocacy. Sequins and sponsorships translate into evidence kits and counseling hours.
The ballroom filled wall to wall. Round tables stretched across the floor beneath purple uplighting, dressed in white linen, gold chargers, red napkins, and small gold lamps set beside plated salads and heart-topped desserts. A buffet along the perimeter offered beef short ribs, pepper-crusted pork tenderloin, lemon roasted chicken, cauliflower mashed potatoes, green beans, and roasted vegetables. On stage, gold draping framed the program while greenery and globe lights formed the backdrop. A tuxedoed host sang Sinatra as photographers circulated the crowd.
Emily Hurt chaired the event for the past three years and selected nearly everything in the room, from auction items to desserts. She will roll off the board in the fall. “I love the organization and the work we do,” she said, adding that she plans to remain involved.
Between the auction tables and the bar, lingered a quartet of women wrapped in mink coats inherited from grandmothers or claimed as vintage finds. They call themselves the “Mob Wives of Clayton.” One woman’s husband, an attorney, shook his head with affectionate resignation as they posed for photos. The coats may be playful, but the cause carries weight.
F.A.I.T.H. houses a forensic nurse examiner program that operates around the clock. Lisa Fugel serves as a forensic nurse examiner and handles sexual assault, physical abuse, child abuse, and strangulation cases. “We’re on call 24 hours,” she said. The organization has expanded from one examiner to two, allowing victims to receive exams, forensic photography, and evidence collection in one location.
Habersham County investigator Tim Jarrell describes the shift from the old model. Before the Child Advocacy Center opened, interviews took place in jail settings or police stations, and victims traveled to multiple sites for exams and statements. Now interviews, medical care, and therapy happen under one roof. The center records interviews in a neutral format and focuses on minimizing further trauma.
F.A.I.T.H. does not close files after ten therapy sessions or measure healing by a fixed calendar. The hotline connects callers to advocacy and long-term counseling, and when children enter the program, parents receive support alongside them. If someone steps away and returns months later, staff reopen the door and continue the work.
The evening also featured keynote speaker Councilwoman Sarah Gillespie, who spoke openly about a past shaped by male violence. In a room that could have responded with discomfort, she addressed survival, responsibility, and leadership from the vantage point of public service. Her testimony underscored the mission the event exists to fund.
The organization plans to move into a new facility in Habersham County, increasing access across the four counties it serves. Board member John Williams joined after touring the center through the Lake Rabun Foundation. Recently retired, he sought a way to serve locally. “There is a need,” he said. “They handle it with grace.”
Guests moved between dinner, dancing, and bidding, filling the room with tinkling dishes and conversation. The Sweetheart Ball avoids the polite charity dinner trope; instead it gathers people who believe in the mission and show up in full dress to support it.
By night’s end, the ballroom reads less like a venue and more like a coalition, and that coalition funds the work F.A.I.T.H. carries out long after the uplights power down.
More information on fundraising totals soon to come.
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Carly McCurry is a freelance writer and publisher of The Cute North Georgian magazine. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
