A Big Thank You to All Those who
Walked A Mile In Her Shoes!
On Saturday, May 3, 2008 PADA celebrated our first Walk A Mile In Her Shoes sponsored by PADA and Fort HealthCare Behavioral Health. Thanks to all the participants, volunteers, staff, board members and sponsors we were able to raise almost $5000 to help domestic and sexual abuse survivors and their families in Jefferson County.
More than 100 individuals participated on the walk. The walk began with Lin Zastrow and Caitlin Gibson from the Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Basketball team leading participants in some stretching exercises. After the warm up everyone gathered outside to begin the walk. Men, women and children cheered at the starting line and were holding banners with empowering slogans. The men in high heels drew the most attention as well as all the people in costumes. The men soon realized that walking in high heels was not as easy as it looks, but they were valiant to continued to walk the entire route. Many walked fast as other decided to go slower. Benjamin Gomez even dared to jog in heels. Walkers took advantage of the rest stations and the Lake Mills cheerleading team cheered during the walk. The ladies of the Twinkle Toes team walked on and their effort paid off by winning an award. During lunch the participants enjoyed music by Simply Folk (Tom and Mary Pat Cook) and awards were handed out to the winning teams. The awards included the biggest shoe, littlest shoe, best spirit and best walker.
PADA is happy to report that participants and community members have expressed great interest in next year’s event and we have already began planning for the 2nd Annual “Walk A Mile In Her Shoes” event on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009. Thank you again to all the participants in this very important and fun event that raised awareness about domestic and sexual violence against women and children. It has made an incredible difference in the lives of so many survivors in our community.
Visit Walk A Mile In Her Shoes National Website
