SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 ISSUE
ASU Holds 21st Walk for Awareness September 7
ASU students and community members will walk to acknowledge victims and survivors of sexual assault on Tuesday, September 7, at 9:00 p.m. on Sanford Mall. Photo courtesy of ASU News Bureau.In conjunction with ASU’s Safety Week, the 21st annual Walk for Awareness will be held Tuesday, September 7, at 9:00 p.m. on Sanford Mall.
The silent walk was organized in 1989 to acknowledge victims of sexual assault following the abduction and murder of ASU employee Jeni Gray, who was abducted and raped in the late 1980s. Walk for Awareness also acknowledges Leigh Cooper Wallace, an ASU student who was assaulted by the same man as Gray but survived the attack.
The walk serves as a reminder to students and community members that personal safety is important and commemorates lives lost to violence and supports victims and survivors.
This year’s speakers include Maliaka King Albrecht, a North Carolina poet, and Jamar Banks, director of ASU’s Center for Student Involvement and Leadership.
Prior to the walk, the video “Why Walk? A Survivor’s Story” will be shown at 8:00 p.m. in the Price Lake Room of ASU’s Plemmons Student Union.
ASU students, as well as community members, are encouraged to walk, and in the past, it is estimated that an average 3,000 individuals have participated in the event.
Admission to both the video and the walk are free. Attendees are encouraged to bring candles or flashlights for the walk, and no cell phone use or smoking is allowed.
Sponsors of the Walk for Awareness include the ASU’s Women’s Center, the Office of Equity, Diversity and Compliance, the Safety Week Committee, the Parents Association and University Highlands Student Apartments.
Safety Week at ASU will continue from Tuesday, September 7, to Friday, September 10, with the theme “Be Safe—On Campus, At Home, Online.” Contact tables will be set up in the student union from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and other activities at ASU include special programs on relationship safety, personal and psychological safety, public safety and safety online.
For more information on Walk for Awareness or Safety Week, call 828-262-6252 or click to http://today.appstate.edu/safetyweek.
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