Bess Cohn Humanitarian Award: Linda McCabe, Incentive Gallery
By Joan Chaykin

Linda McCabe, owner of Incentive Gallery (asi/230734), was starting to become immune to the tragedies she was seeing at her work as a child advocate at the Sojourner Truth House, and she didn’t like it one bit.

"I was finding that nothing was shocking me anymore," McCabe says. So she left and found a job in sales, at first selling gifts for a toy company and eventually finding herself in the ad specialties industry and opening her own business. However, she has always maintained her connection with the shelter.

Volunteering is in McCabe’s blood, having worked at various charities since childhood. She got involved with Sojourner Truth House, a shelter for battered women and their children, while working in the early education field. "I started as a volunteer handling crisis phone calls and helping out with the children’s programs," she says. "Since I was a Head Start teacher, they asked me to run the program and I became a children’s advocate."

Now she has been head of her company for 13 years and is an accomplished fundraiser. In addition to raising money for the shelter, she finds new donors and volunteers and helps to raise awareness for domestic violence. She’s also active with Easter Seals and two homes for people with HIV/AIDS: Richard’s Place and Elena’s House. "Today, I mostly focus on AIDS prevention and domestic violence prevention," she says.

The Sojourner Truth Web site says its mission is to "provide shelter, safety, support, education and advocacy to break the cycle of violence because domestic respect is the right of every woman, man and child." McCabe says when women show up at the shelter, it’s usually their last hope. "By the time a woman needs a shelter, she has run out of all other options," she explains. "Because of the actions of her partner, she has lost her job, her friends and is isolated. That’s how it works. She’s at the bottom. It’s either get out or die."

One of the more satisfying parts of being involved with the shelter for so long is being able to see success stories of women reclaiming their lives and seeing their children grow into well-adjusted people in healthy relationships. "I’ve had the pleasure of working with many former residents who are now themselves volunteers and donors," McCabe says. "It’s nice to be able to see people come full circle." – JC