Take back the Night

Tonight kicks off my summer of charity work. I've decided I am going to volunteer my free time as much as I can since I will have the summer off of school.

My friend Jenna invited me to do an event with her tonight called Take back the Night. The event kicked off in Newport at the Peace Bell, followed by a walk to Fountain Square and back. The event is to raise awareness of sexual assault and domestic abuse. On the walk over to Fountain Square the group chanted things like "People unite take back the night." "Hey mister get your hands of my sister" <---(this one was my favorite) "Yes means yes, no means no, whatever we wear, where ever we go," and more.

When we got to fountain square a woman, who is a yoga instructor, told her story of being raped by one of her students. You could tell it was hard for her to tell even 5 years later. After she told her story they left the mic open for anyone to come up and tell their story as well. This was pretty hard to watch. My heart truly heart for these girls. Little girls would come up and tell their horrible but also inspirational stories. At one point two little girls came up holding hands; one had a story and one was just there for support. Now I'm not a cryer and especially not in public but oh my goodness it was so heartbreaking and so adorable. It was so fitting as well because it was like a mirror of Jenna and I. She held my hand through my darkest time.

On the way back we all lit candles and walked back over to the Peace Bell in silence. Even in a time when it was beautiful to see complete strangers supporting each other the worst of humanity shines through. The group marching was rather large and we did not stop for green lights we all marched with our candles in hand. People actually honked their horns and yelled at us as I'm sure they had somewhere "important" to be. People can be so discouraging but I couldn't let ignorance ruin the wonderful thing that everyone at Take Back the Night had done. Even though I haven't had any personal experience with sexual or physical abuse I was inspired by the fearless women that took the stage and told their story to the world. This is a walk I will do each year from now on.