Author to speak at benefit for The Hope Organization
 
The Spectrum
 
ST. GEORGE - "Keep Sweet - Children of Polygamy" author Debbie Palmer will be at The Book Cellar & Andrae Exotic Imports speaking and signing books on Friday at 6 p.m.

Palmer is here from Canada for a benefit with The Hope Organization.

Her book is the intimate story of her first 18 years of survival in Bountiful, Canada, a polygamist community affiliated with the polygamist community in Colorado City.

At 15, Debbie was assigned to be the sixth wife of the group's leader, who was 55.

Following his death in 1974, she was assigned consecutively to two other men in the group. She escaped the group in 1988, one of the first women to escape with all of her children.

Since escaping polygamy, Palmer has worked to educate and lobby government on interventions and education inside polygamous communities and has met internationally with human rights activists on the topic.

Her main areas of expertise and research are fundamentalist Mormon polygamous communities, relationship violence prevention, community crime prevention, and issues of poverty and education in closed communities.

Her appearance here is free and open to anyone who would like to attend, however seating is limited so please call 652-0227 for reservations. The Book Cellar is located at 130 N. Main Street.

On Saturday, The Hope Organization is holding a dinner/speaker fundraiser to raise awareness and money to assist victims of polygamy.

The dinner is at 6:30 p.m. at the Bloomington Country Club, 3174 S. Bloomington Drive. The cost of the dinner is $75 per person. A portion of this is a tax deductible donation to Hope.

In addition to the dinner, there will be a silent auction with donations from various merchants including M & S Turquoise, Green Valley Spa, Falcon Ridge Golf Course and artwork by Owl Woman.

There will also be a presentation by Palmer.

Jane Blackmore, Palmer's sister and the first wife of Winston Blackmore, leader of the Bountiful, Canada polygamous group, will also speak at the dinner.

For more information about the dinner and the Hope Organization, visit the Web site at www.thehopeorg.org. Seating for the dinner is limited.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published October 4, 2007
 
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