Pictured is Rebecca Magnuson, founder of She Is Safe of Chautauqua County, who will be holding a benefit dinner for victims of domestic violence on Saturday. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

MAYVILLE — Rebeca Magnuson has been focused on helping victims of domestic violence for many years, and her work continues on Saturday with a benefit set to be held at her former Mayville restaurant.

A domestic violence survivor herself, Magnuson began her nonprofit She Is Safe of Chautauqua County two years ago in February. Her restaurant, She Sings Cafe, hired many victims of abuse, and Magnuson is also currently working on finding a platform for her five-part documentary series, She Sings. She also has her own one-woman show since 2018.

Magnuson’s restaurant has since shut down, as she said it was taking every bit of her time, and she wanted to be able to focus more on the other sections of her work helping domestic violence victims.

“So that is why I have shut the restaurant down and we are going full force with She Is Safe,” Magnuson said. “We will be having benefit dinners, concerts here to help victims of abuse in Chautauqua County, and at the same time we are getting my She Sings tour started back up again and we’re also actively finding a platform for the documentary series.”

While the building is up for sale, Magnuson plans to continue to make use of the space until it is sold to hold events to help domestic violence survivors. The first benefit dinner event is set for this Saturday at the restaurant, 95 West Lake Road, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Magnuson is a singer and songwriter herself, but will also bring in other bands to play at these events as well. She said the benefits held in the past have been and will continue to be to raise money to help victims of domestic violence, which will not stop even if the building is sold. In one year she added She Is Safe raised $25,000, and gave over $23,000, with 98% of the money raised going directly to victims. This includes getting deals worked out with a Buffalo dentist to help women get teeth after having their teeth knocked out during domestic violence situations, along with deals with certain local hotels for those in need of an immediate safe space to go. This is anonymous as well, and something Magnuson said they have done many times over the years. Another event in the past took in donations from people in the community, with items brought in then being sold and the around $1,300 brought in from that event was donated to the Salvation Army’s Anew Center in Jamestown.

Magnuson added that she hopes to continue to be able to do things like that locally.

“My heart is here on this lake and in this community,” Magnuson said. “I was raised here. My dad moved us here right after eighth grade and I spent my high school years in Mayville in Chautauqua County. I waitressed in this building, paid my way through college, and worked with women who all these years later I kept in contact with, and many of them had been victims of domestic abuse here in Chautauqua County.”

Magnuson said she then opened her restaurant to help give them employment and help them have a safe place to work where yelling and other things found in other work environments would not be found. Her restaurant was open for about three years before closing as she said it was “consuming my entire existence.”

Her focus is now specifically on She Is Safe, the tour, and documentary. Additionally, Magnuson said awareness of domestic abuse is desperately needed in the United States and globally.

On Saturday, Magnuson will be playing at her piano bar, where she has been playing for three years, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Chefs will be serving the meals that the restaurant used to sell out of every night, with wait staff there as well. Weather permitting, at 7 p.m. on the deck South 79, a nationally acclaimed Blue Grass band, will be performing, and Magnuson said the other times they have been performing the restaurant was packed. Between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. they will perform, either on the deck or inside if it rains.

“It will just be a really fun evening to raise money for She Is Safe of Chautauqua County, a great meal, and amazing entertainment,” Magnuson said. “We’ll shut it down by about 9 p.m.”

Magnuson said the most important thing people should be interested in coming to the event for, is to help victims of abuse. She referred to domestic violence and abuse as being rampant in the area, with her getting five to 10 calls a week from women who need help. She said she will refer them to the Anew Center, or if it is immediate and they are there with no transportation she will help get them into a hotel.

“The reason people should come to this event is to support what is a massive problem in Chautauqua County, but it’s also everywhere throughout our country,” Magnuson said. “Domestic abuse is a problem and we need to bring awareness to it, help women flee from abuse, and the only way to do that is with resources. We need to raise the money in order to help women escape.”

Magnuson’s mission at She Sings Cafe and with She Is Safe has always been to help victims of abuse wherever she can. She said it has been her lifelong work, having also worked with safe houses in Washington D.C. when she raised her kids there, also running a nonprofit, She Is Singing, as it was called then, before she began her current nonprofit She Is Safe of Chautauqua County. Continuing that work is the number one goal for the property, and with the restaurant being for sale, when it is sold that money will also be used towards continuing She Is Safe’s mission on a national scale. Funding is needed to get the documentary a platform and to bring the tour back, which so far Magnuson has funded on her own, and the money from the sale of the building will help support those goals and help to reach more people.

“We want to start in our small communities to bring awareness and then expand from there,” Magnuson said. “Everyone can do something in their smaller communities, because if we all join together in our smaller communities then we do have that national and international outreach.”

More benefits like Saturday’s are also planned for the future. For more information on She Is Safe of Chautauqua County and to buy tickets for Saturday’s event, visit sheissafechq.org.