MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) – With April being sexual assault awareness month, three Marquette businesses are using this time to give back to the Women’s Center and to raise awareness for sexual assault through your favorite handcrafted drink.

“The whole issue of sexual assault in our community, we’re not unlike any other community around the country,” Beth Casady, the Executive Director for Women’s Center said. “It does occur and it does go on.”

231 West, Dead River Coffee, and Bubble Blossom Bird Tea are the three businesses that are donating their sales from a portion of a day to show their support for sexual awareness month.

“We have had a great turnout today,” Lizzy Stark, an employee at 231 West said. “We have been super busy so far and I think it is super important for communities to give back. I think we’re responsible as a community to help support the survivors of abuse and sexual assault.”

It’s events like this one that allows the Women’s Center to do what they do year-round to help victims across the U.P.

“These dollars really help us,” Casady said. “We have contracts with the state of Michigan and there are a lot of things that those contracts do not pay for. They don’t pay for a lot of our materials and we can’t pay for certain things with those contracts.”

Dead River Coffee will be donating their sales to the Women’s Center on Wednesday from 9 A.M. until noon and Bubble Blossom Bird Tea will be donating their sales from 1 P.M. until 4 P.M on Friday, April 22.