Domestic violence is an issue that tears at the heart of Army values and good order. To bring attention to this issue and celebrate the lives of survivors of domestic violence, the U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz held a Purple Gala evening Oct. 23 at Baumholder's Rheinlander Convention Center.
"It was a night to remember those who've lost their lives to domestic violence and to celebrate the lives of survivors," said Natalie K. Swindle, Family Advocacy program specialist.
"We opened up the night with a social hour and some classical welcoming music from the USAREUR band, which was awesome, and then went into the formal portion of the evening where we had a guest speaker who spoke about her experiences with domestic violence.
The guest speaker for the evening was Diane Moore. Moore lost her daughter Heather as a result of domestic violence in 2009 when Heather's husband murdered her, leaving three sons behind. She relayed an emotional account of her struggle to gain custody of her three grandsons, Adrian, Silas, and Charles.
Every year during October, the U.S. Army observes Domestic Violence Awareness Month to help bring attention to this issue that can end careers and even lives.
In his remarks, Col. G. Shawn Wells, Jr., U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz commander, emphasized that it's all about respect -- respect for one another.
"It starts with you and with respect. Here in Kaiserslautern and Baumholder, victims of domestic violence can receive clinical counseling from Social Work Services. There are also medical and victim advocacy resources as well as legal assistance. It takes collaboration from all agencies involved in order to prevent this issue," said Wells.
More than 160 people attended the Purple Gala, organized by Army Community Services. It was the garrison's focal point of a month dedicated to increasing awareness of this issue that undermines Army values.
Swindle, who dedicated much of her time to organizing the Purple Gala, talked about some of the garrison's other initiatives that focused on bringing awareness to the prevention of domestic violence.
"In Kaiserslautern and Baumholder we participated in what's called the Silent Witness Project and the Cloths Line Project. The Silent Witness Project is representative of those who've lost their lives to domestic violence. We had silhouettes that represented different demographics, such as pregnant women, men, children and women that are not pregnant as well. We put their stories on the actual silhouettes, displayed them in community areas and people were able to walk among them and read the stories," said Swindle.
The Cloths Line project was designed to celebrate the lives of survivors. Survivors of domestic abuse wrote stories on t-shirts which were then displayed in areas like community mailrooms where people were able to read their stories.
Several flash mobs and freeze mobs were also organized. "Those were sort of a fun event to reach out to people in the community," said Swindle.
The freeze mobs surprised people in the commissaries where participants would mingle with the crowd and when people were least suspecting, a bell would ring and they would freeze in their tracks. The family advocacy program manager would then read some statistics about domestic violence over the loud speaker. As the shoppers walk around the participants they became more aware of the announcements over the loud speaker.
Flash mobs were held during the Red Ribbon Run at Sembach and at the closing ceremony of the Silent Witness and Cloths Line initiatives. "We would just have a dance sort of happen in the middle of a crowd. It was really great to watch people join in and really come together and become aware about stopping domestic violence," said Swindle.
Wells emphasized that no one deserves abuse and pointed out that anyone can be a victim of verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse.
"Our Garrison takes a firm stand against domestic violence and strongly supports all awareness events in the effort to prevent it from occurring in our military community," said Wells.
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