On Tuesday, Oct. 17, the Lawrence University Women’s Volleyball team played Carroll University at a packed home gymnasium to raise awareness for domestic violence in partnership with Harbor House domestic violence shelter.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and brings about the need to speak out against abusive, violent or aggressive domestic situations between partners. Harbor House expresses that “domestic abuse is characterized by one partner’s need to control the other.” This can be done through many different tactics like terrorizing, manipulating, blaming, humiliating, injuring or even in extreme cases killing an intimate partner.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence organization (NCADV) reported that in the United States, 10 million people a year are physically abused by an intimate partner. In addition to that, one in three women and one in four men report experiencing any form of physical violence by an intimate partner. When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, Wisconsin saw a sharp increase in domestic violence cases. The domestic violence hotline received a call every three minutes. This epidemic of violence is ripping through the nation, so it is important to host awareness events open to the public.
The event consisted of Harbor House brochures and resources, raffle entries for Lawrence Athletics merchandise and, of course, volleyball. Although the lady Vikes were unable to walk away with a win, they were able to play for a very worthy cause with some amazing individual performances. Junior Aliana Butler-Gray led the team with six kills and one block. Sophomore Mikala Seymour added to that by putting up four kills and another block. Dana Mestey, a senior setter, had eleven assists and nine digs with junior libero Taylor Hughes contributing another seven digs.
“We appreciated all of the support from across campus for our Domestic Violence Awareness night,” head coach Meg Grose said. “It is always a nice moment when we can take time at our games to bring awareness to a cause, especially like domestic violence. It was a great night and we loved all of the support from students and fans at our game!”
On their websites, NCADV and Harbor House provide explanations on abusive characteristics and how to get out of an abusive situation. If you ever feel you have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence or know of someone that has, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-(800)-799-7233 or the Harbor House 24/7 crisis hotline at (920)-832-1666.