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GREENSBORO — For the past three years, Room At The Inn of the Carolinas has been throwing men, women, kids and even dogs – in jail. It's been up to parishioners of the diocese to bail them out.

Before you wonder too much, let's clarify a few things. The jailbirds volunteer, the jail is made of cardboard, there's usually a great dinner at the end of their ordeal and every penny of bail money raised goes to those who desperately need our support. It's called "Sentenced For Life," and this year they raised more than $9,000.

Room At The Inn of the Carolinas operates two licensed maternity homes for single, pregnant, homeless women with or without previous children. Additionally, they offer numerous ongoing programs to support these vulnerable families to include high school, vocational training and college, child care, transportation, health care and many other services.

The Sentenced For Life event works like this: In the first weeks of February and continuing throughout Lent, Room At The Inn puts the call out for volunteers through local parish bulletins. Volunteers agree to be "jailed and sentenced" and each try to raise as much bail money as possible. The "sentence" for getting out of jail is $1,000.

Pictured: Marigold, owned by Father Brian Cook, pastor of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem, was one of many volunteers "sentenced" to participate in Room At The Inn of the Carolinas' annual fundraiser, "Sentenced for Life." She raised all of her "bail." (Photo provided by Marianne Donadio)

The first two years of the event, Holy Cross Church in Kernersville ended its fund raiser with a pancake dinner hosted by the Columbiettes and the Knights of Columbus Council 8509. This past year they ended their event in conjunction with the Knights' last Lenten fish fry. They set up their jail and diners had a last-minute opportunity to bail out a fellow parishioner. It worked out so well and everyone attending the dinner had such a good time, said Marianne Donadio, Room At The Inn's resource development specialist, that she hopes to partner with many more Knights of Columbus parish councils next year.

"It's hard for us to advertise to single, homeless, pregnant women in need of shelter," Donadio said. "The only way to reach the women who need us is by word of mouth sometimes. That's why this is a good fundraiser, because it reaches a lot of people. There's also no overhead for this event, so all the money donated goes directly to services for the women and their children."

A new feature for the 2012 fundraiser was a website, www.sentencedforlife.myevent.com, set up to help the jailbirds raise bail. The sentenced parishioners could send emails to family and friends with the link to the website and ask for donations to bail them out.

Room At The Inn of the Carolinas is licensed by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and is accredited by the Council On Accreditation, an international, independent, not-for-profit, child and family service and behavioral health care accrediting organization.

Contact Marianne Donadio at 336-996-3788 or go online to www.roominn.org for more information about Room At The Inn of the Carolinas.

— Annette Tenny, correspondent