Walk a Mile in Their Shoes to be held at Hood

By Maddie Garvis//

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes, an event to raise awareness of domestic violence, is returning to Hood this year after not taking place last October due to the pandemic.

This year’s event will begin in front of the Coffman Chapel, with check-in and T-shirt pickup starting at 5:30 p.m., and the mile-long walk beginning at 6 p.m. The event is held in observance of October as domestic violence awareness month and will be hosted by SPARC and co-sponsored by the CARE Project, Heartly House, the Dean of the Chapel and the Career Center.

In 2019, Heartly House hosted the event along Carroll Creek, and Hood transported interested students and staff downtown to participate in the event as part of Team Hood. Participants used to be encouraged to wear women’s shoes, specifically high heels, during the walk. This aspect of the walk has since been changed to account to make the walk more inclusive and reflective of people of all ages and gender expressions who are affected by domestic violence.

Nina Carr, faculty advisor of SPARC, said that the goal of the event is to spread awareness, offer support to survivors of domestic violence and affirm that all people deserve safe and healthy relationships.

“Events like this send a message that this is something we can talk about,” Carr said. “A lot of people feel alone in their experience, we have to talk about these issues to bring them into the light and really change the culture.”

For those who don’t wish to take part in the walk portion of the event but still want to participate, there’s the option of creating a luminary that will be displayed at the event. Those interested can write a message, a poem, or even draw something on the luminaries, which will be lit by purple tea lights to represent the color of domestic violence awareness month.

The event will also include student speakers as well as a speaker from Heartly House who will discuss the services they provide to survivors of domestic/intimate partner violence and to the Frederick community.

For more information about how to participate in Walk a Mile in Their Shoes contact SPARC at sparc@hood.edu.