Detroit's City Mission to Host 7th Annual Gala Fundraiser Oct. 6

DETROIT, Sept. 25, 2007 - City Mission will host its seventh annual gala fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. at the Rock Financial Diamond Center Showplace in Novi, Mich. The Oct. 6 gala includes the theme, "Forge a Future. Change Detroit," features special guest host WJBK FOX2's Huel Perkins and is expected to attract more than 600 attendees. Event sponsors this year include: Brother Rice High School, Compuware, Emerson Wealth Management, Global Hue, Ideation Signs & Communication, Pendulum LLC, Butzel Long, Fox Run, Henry Ford Health System, Lear Corporation and Merrill Lynch.

City Mission (www.city-mission.org) is a 501(c)(3) organization that provides education, tutoring, counseling and support services to help improve the lives of underprivileged children and families in the Brightmoor community of Detroit. It aims to meet the educational, physical and spiritual needs of families in this neighborhood.

Gala tickets cost $125 per person (50 percent is tax deductible) and the proceeds will go towards tutoring, mentoring and outreach programs that benefit the children and families living in Brightmoor. This neighborhood in one targeted by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in his recently announced neighborhoods program.

"Since hosting our first fundraising gala in 2000, City Mission has continued to cultivate its programming and reach in Brightmoor," said Jamail Aikens, business director at City Mission. "The gala is City Mission's main fundraiser and provides 20 percent of the revenue needed to operate for the year. This year is especially important as we seek to expand the City Mission Academy by adding another grade level and building a larger facility so we can help even more kids in Detroit."

In Detroit's Brightmoor community, more than 80 percent of the children come from a fatherless home, with many living on public assistance. There are a high percentage of students in elementary schools who test well below their grade level. With high levels of poverty, high school dropout and crime all
around them, children here can easily become entrenched in a cycle of generational poverty, drug use and violence.

"City Mission aims to break this cycle of generational poverty and make life change possible for the families in Brightmoor who otherwise may not see a way out," said Nicole Aikens, executive director at City Mission. "We require our staff members to live in the Brightmoor community along with
Jamail and me so we can show this community our commitment to them, and to breaking down the racial and socioeconomic barriers that exist here. If we're going to 'Forge a Future' and 'Change Detroit,' we've all got to do this together."

City Mission is still seeking Silent Auction donation items, corporate sponsors and individuals or groups who can provide financial support to City Mission students and programs. To learn more about attending the Gala or these donation opportunities, call City Mission's main office at 313.541.3531 or visit www.city-mission.org .

About City Mission
City Mission, www.city-mission.org , is a 501(c)(3) organization that exists to break the cycle of generational poverty by meeting the educational, physical and spiritual needs of families in the Brightmoor community of Detroit through loving, mentoring relationships that make life-change possible. Founded by Jamail and Nicole Aikens in 1998, City Mission is centered around four foundational "pillars:" Education, Leadership, Family and Community. City Mission began with seven students and seven volunteer tutors in 1998, and has grown 50-100 percent each year since. Current programs support more than 200 underprivileged students and families in the Detroit area.