Nashville’s Sexual Assault Center 2014 Walk in their Shoes 5K
On Saturday, May 3rd my friend Nancy and I took Meadow, Sara, and Floyd for a 5K walk, benefiting the Nashville Sexual Assault Center. I’m a Penn State graduate and as ashamed of my alma mater’s sports program as anyone who has read the Freeh Report would be. It’s important for me to give back however I can, and when my local PSU alumni association invited me to join them on the walk, I jumped at the opportunity.
The 5K Walk in their Shoes event was both happy and sad. There were booths sponsored by an eclectic bunch, ranging from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle club to a Hispanic radio station, plus hospitality tables offering water, apples, and bananas for everybody. A band with a lead singer tapping a tambourine played on the steps and participants wore teal and purple tutus, stockings, leg warmers, and hats.
But behind it all, hanging from one end of the Sexual Assault Center to the other, was a row of t-shirts attached to a clothesline with messages so graphic and full of rage that it seemed like the inanimate cotton clothes were actual voices screaming about the injustice of what had happened to them.
The words and drawings caused tears to spring to my eyes as soon as I realized what the messages meant, and everyone around me seemed to be having the same emotional reaction. There was a naked female figurine with underwear around the knees and red smears between the legs, a colorful but crude child’s drawing of a heart next to the words “you raped me,” a photograph of a gigantic mastiff-looking mutt with the warning “rapist-eating dog,” a lot of mentions of “Daddy” and “Mom,” and “betrayal,” and “blood,” and “lies,” all really hard stuff to digest. But, as I made my way down the clothesline, my feelings about those t-shirts morphed from grief to amazement. Those declarations were so f-ing honest that their bravery deserves recognition. To read more about the Nashville Sexual Assault Center, click here.
Do you know what really made it all worth it? The dogs. Of course they did – those magical creatures that turn tears into laughter in less than a second. Watching people’s faces break out in smiles when they saw Nancy and I walking three well behaved and ADORABLE dogs made my heart sing. An autistic boy kept kissing their furry heads, a politician running for Davidson County District Attorney introduced himself to the pups, and a few times Meadow and Sara (loving all the attention) showed off and gave a posse of little girls wearing purple sunglasses high-five’s.
A whole gaggle of participants sporting PSU colors walked in the 5K, and I left the event feeling proud that so many alumni wanted to give voice to the people similar to the ones our university tried to hush. I also left believing more than ever that dogs have the power to heal hurt souls.