Couple Donates More Than $30,000 To Keep Women's Shelter Open

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The heat is back on at a battered women's shelter in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, thanks to one very generous anonymous donor, reports WBBM's Nancy Harty.

Thursday night, more than a week after the gas was shut off at Clara's Place at 63rd and Paulina and the gas company threatened to disconnect service at another shelter for homeless and battered women.

Founder Clara Kirk says she got a phone call from a woman she has never met.

"She asked me what was the gas bill at Clara's house and I told her. She said hold on a minute and she talked to her husband and she said, 'We're gonna pay both of them for you,'" said Kirk.

Kirk says the couple paid $33,000 to get the shelters up to date on their bills. It was just in time as the 72-year-old says the City was about to remove the 19 women and 23 kids staying at the pink three-story building amid unseasonably cold temperatures.