Woman honors domestic violence victims with pajama drive
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Over 300 pajamas were donated to the Marjaree Mason Center in Fresno on Friday.
It was to honor the lives of a woman killed in a domestic violence incident.
In 2021, police said 50-year-old Michelle Johnson and her former foster child- 21-year-old Charlette Ethridge were both shot and killed by Ethridge’s boyfriend, 24-year-old Deandre Foster.
Friday, Johnson’s sister says she never wants any other family to go through what they went through, and hopes their donation provides comfort and healing this holiday season.
“When you’re displaced, you want something that feels like home,” Tracy Spraetz said.
Spraetz says the Marjaree Mason Center said, sometimes home can feel like a fresh pair of pajamas.
Looking for a way to give back, she helped organize a pajama drive to the Marjaree Mason Center- trying to brighten the lives of women and children there as the holidays approach. But she also says it’s to honor her sister.
“She stepped in front of a domestic violence situation, trying to help her friend and former foster daughter,” she added.
She says both Ethridge and Johnson were killed that night. The suspect, Foster, was taken into custody- and charged with their murders.
Spraetz says if Ethridge had been helped by the center, both women would still be alive today.
“I feel that there’s not a lot of people in this world that are as giving as she was, and that’s why I want that to be her legacy,” Spraetz said.
Spraetz says the pajama drive gives back to the women at the center, while they are going through some of the toughest moments in their lives. She says they collected pajamas for children too, in an effort to help both mothers and their children.
Director of philanthropy and communications for the Marjaree Mason Center Ashlee Wolf says the pajamas do much more than give the people they serve something new to wear. It sends a message.
“It’s a little glimmer of hope. It’s a message that people do care about you in this community, and that there are safe people that exist,” Wolf said.
Foster’s trial is set to begin in March, the same time as Spraetz’s next drive to benefit the Marjaree Mason Center.
Spraetz says they are collecting toilet paper between March 1 and 31 at their business, Resort Life Carts. She says March is Johnson’s birthday month, as well as the month the center was founded.
Toilet paper donations can be brought to their business at 47 W Birch in Riverpark in Fresno as well as to their location at 14748 HWY 41 in Madera. The drive ends at the end of the month.
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