Silent Witness unveiling ceremony

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Each year, women who lost their lives at the hands of husbands, boyfriends, dating partners or stalkers are remembered during the Silent Witness unveiling ceremony. More than 50 northwest Ohio women became victims during the last decade. This year’s event will be held at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 5 at Maumee United Methodist Church, 405 Sackett St. in Maumee.

Sponsored by the Bowling Green State University Women’s Center, the project will present wooden silhouettes, and a reader will share the name and story of each of those who have died as the silhouettes are unveiled. The figures, representing victims ranging in age from teens to 80s, stand as a tribute to the victims and a reminder of the importance of stopping domestic violence.

The unveiling also will include keynote speakers Cheryl Rucker and Bob Quast. Rucker, mother of Silent Witness Shynerra Grant, will speak about her successful campaign to create legislation to better protect minors being abused by their dating partners. Quast, brother of Silent Witness Lynette Craft, will address his ongoing campaign for legislation to protect surviving family members of murder victims from harassment by the paroled murderers.

BGSU partners with 34 university and regional community agencies and organizations on the Silent Witness Project, a national initiative founded in 1990 in Minnesota in response to an epidemic of domestic violence homicides. There now are local Silent Witness Project chapters in all 50 states. The BGSU Women’s Center founded the northwest Ohio chapter in 2001.

Hundreds of people attended last year’s Silent Witness Project Unveiling. Many were family members or friends of the girls and women represented in the collection, who shared their powerfully painful experiences of losing daughters, mothers and sisters to domestic violence. Family members will be present again this year,

For more information on the northwest Ohio chapter, call the Women’s Center at 419-372-7227.

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(Posted September 23, 2011 )