Every time a marcher finished a lap around the City Light Home for Women and Children on Jefferson Street in Downtown Boise, a volunteer slipped a rubber band around the marcher's wrist.

Those bands collected on the arms of about 50 marchers, many of them the women and children who live at City Light.

Every rubber band meant another can of food, or another dollar, promised by a sponsor to support Boise Rescue Mission shelters.

Meagan Ellis, event coordinator, said that City Light, the Mission shelter for women and children, is now serving 250 meals a day.

Fred Meyer, one of the march sponsors, was responsible for a big chunk of the donations Saturday, giving a check for $10,000.

The rest came from other donors, including a few who happened to drive by, saw the marchers, and stopped.

Thirteen children, including a newborn who was expected home from the hospital this very weekend, live at City Light with their mothers.

Angel Nilsson, 37, and her two children are residents. The three participated in Saturday's march. Nilsson is enrolled in City Light's "discipleship" addiction recovery program, studying to get her GED. She'd like to be a welder one day.

"I praise God that I'm here," she said.

Her recovery program will last 24 months - a long time, and time enough for her and the other women at City Light to become "sisters," she said.

"I almost lost my children because of relapsing and depression. Now I'm changing, focusing on God," she said.

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