The community is invited to a mixer this evening aimed at thanking supporters while bringing awareness to domestic violence.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Crisis Center Foundation in Jacksonville is hosting an awareness mixer tonight in Legends at K’s Creek Golf Course.
Executive Director of the Crisis Center Donna Leonard says the Purple Happy Hour event is the start of the month-long campaign to bring awareness to domestic violence.
“This is our kickoff event and it’s called Purple Happy Hour. It’s from 4:30 to 6:30 at Legends at K’s Creek Golf Course. Richie at Kitchen 63 is providing our appetizers which are free. The only cost is if you want something to drink from the bar.
We’re not really going to have a program, it’s more of a thank you for supporting the work that we do. We are going to have some educational information for people to pick up, and just more for awareness for people to know that this is domestic violence awareness month.”
Leonard says representatives from the Crisis Center Foundation will be visiting businesses this week to ask them to put purple ribbons in their windows. She says there are also signs available for the public to display showing their support for domestic violence awareness.
Leonard says they hope to have purple eventually become as immediately recognizable as the color pink is during this time of year.
“We have trouble this month, I’m going to be honest with you because it’s also breast cancer awareness month. And not to take away from that whatsoever, but it’s huge and sometimes we get forgotten, the domestic violence movement gets forgotten. So we try to get that color out there as much as we can in different ways.
We’ve tied purple ribbons around downtown Jacksonville. We are doing it in the other towns that we serve, around their squares for people to recognize when they see that color. Just like when you see pink and you think breast cancer awareness, we want people to see the color purple and think oh it’s domestic violence awareness.”
The Purple Happy Hour will be held tonight at Legends in K’s Creek Golf Course from 4:30 to 6:30 pm.
The Crisis Center Foundation in Jacksonville serves Morgan, Cass, Scott, and Greene Counties. If you or someone you know is in need of confidential assistance due to domestic violence, call 217-243-4357.