The South Lake Chamber of Commerce took home the championship belt at Find, Feed & Restore’s Battle for Hope fundraiser Saturday evening, (Sept. 26), ending the Clermont Police Department’s five-year run as champion.

Chamber board members and staff faced off against officers in an interactive game show, hosted by Keith McManus, that called for contestants to dance, sing, act out prompts and tackle other challenges in categories like Animal Antics, Tune Tease and Hollywood Hijinks.

The police team had won every Battle for Hope since the event began, including last year’s matchup against the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

The competition drew laughs, but the evening’s purpose was to support local families experiencing homelessness. Find, Feed & Restore development managers Holly Grant and Jeremy Elliott welcomed guests before the games began. Elliott put the mission plainly: “We exist to bring an end to homelessness for families with children.”

Guests bought raffle tickets and made donations toward Find, Feed & Restore’s $100,000 fundraising goal. On Tuesday morning, the organization confirmed it came close to that, though a final amount raised has not been determined with donations still being received.

“Tonight was amazing; it was our largest one to date,” says Find, Feed & Restore co-founder Pastor Brian Broadway, who leads Living Message Church. “We increased the number of seats,  so to see this many people engaged, to see their response and how moved they were hearing the stories from actual people who endured, struggled and found help through Find, Feed & Restore was beautiful.”

Brian and his wife, Allison Broadway, founded Find, Feed & Restore to help families with children find stable housing and the support needed to regain their footing. Its services include financial literacy classes and mental health counseling.

The evening gave guests a closer look at that work. The organization honored Larry Jaskowiak, owner of Community Collision in Leesburg, for helping provide three vehicles to date to people in its program.

In a video shown to guests, Tyree Bennett, a single father raising his young daughter, described the difference a car made after years of struggling with transportation.

Shoncy Williams also shared her story with the crowd. She spoke about experiencing homelessness in 2024 while dealing with depression and told guests that Find, Feed & Restore helped her address struggles that housing alone could not resolve.

The organization also shared updates on two housing projects. Construction has begun on Hannah Grace Gardens, a planned community of nine affordable housing units and an economic development office. It also announced plans for Miriam’s Hope, a transitional housing community for women and children leaving domestic violence.

As for the night’s competition, South Lake Chamber of Commerce board chair Donna Kirtland says winning was fun, but seeing people come together mattered more.

“I think it was really nice for guests to see business leaders being human and fun because it gets them to understand the human in the people we’re serving, too,” she says.

Clermont Police Chief John Graczyk said his team may have lost, but they sure had fun doing it.

“The Chamber did it, they were the ones to finally beat us, but at the end of the day, it’s the whole community and the whole county who wins,” Graczyk says. I hope everybody came out and had a good time learning what the needs are within the community and then figuring out a way that they could get involved and help out, because that’s what matters most.”

For Broadway, the need behind the game remains urgent. He told guests the organization must turn away families it lacks the capacity to serve and urged them to continue giving and volunteering so the organization so that one day, they don’t have to do that.

“It’s OK if homelessness or being a survivor of domestic violence was a part of your story,” he told the crowd. “It’s not OK if we do nothing and let it be the end.”