Donning pink heels for a new perspective, a group of fraternity brothers and students walked across campus to support a local shelter for domestic violence victims.
To raise money and awareness for gender violence, Tau Alpha Upsilon Fraternity (TAU) hosted “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.” The walk raised $600 for RISE, an organization located in Endicott, which provides services for those enduring domestic violence. RISE supports women and children threatened with domestic violence with immediate protection and long-term planning.
“Walk A Mile in Her Shoes” is a national organization that sells the rights to their name to organizers in order to raise money in support of domestic violence victims. The fraternity raised money by charging participants and receiving donations from alumni, parents of fraternity brothers and a grant from the Intrafraternity Council (IFC). Each participant paid $5 to march and $10 to buy a t-shirt.
Brian McAllister, the philanthropy chair of Tau Alpha Upsilon and a junior majoring in business administration, ran and organized the event. He said that since the goal of the event was to support women who have faced abuse, RISE seemed like the perfect organization to fundraise for.
“It’s a march to stop sexual assault, rape and gender violence, and we figured RISE, which is a battered women’s shelter, paralleled the spirit of the event enough that we decided that’s where we wanted to donate the money to,” McAllister said.
However, the event was cut short due to inclement weather and a lower turnout than expected. McAllister said other Greek organizations were the primary attendees.
“This was really targeted to be an event for everybody, not just a Greek life thing, so when people didn’t really come through, we decided to cut it short,” McAllister said.
TAU president Ryan Mirchin, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, said that it is important for fraternities to face these issues head-on.
“It was a lot of Greek, which I think is fantastic because the issues of rape, sexual assault and gender violence are issues that plague the Greek community all across the nation,” Mirchin said. “That’s not what Greek life is about, and that’s what we wanted to show: that we are aware and we promote anything against those issues.”
According to Ryan Meehan, a senior majoring in human development, his fraternity learned of the importance of RISE and what they are doing for women. RISE offers a safe, undisclosed location for those trying to escape domestic violence.
“There’s no address, so women can’t be traced down by their attackers or their abusers and they need a place to go, and that’s what RISE supplies them with,” Meehan said.