Hiatus House is once again honouring Woman Abuse Prevention Month with their annual tree lighting event. The 15th annual Shine the Light tree lighting ceremony took place Monday evening at City Hall Square. The event raises awareness about woman abuse, honours survivors, and shows community commitment to ending gender-based violence. The campaign calls for the community to individually and collectively work toward turning their city purple during the month of November. The colour purple is used to symbolize strength, justice, dignity, remembrance, and solidarity with survivors and victims. New this year, Hiatus House is expanding tree lighting ceremonies to surrounding municipalities, including Essex, LaSalle, Lakeshore and Leamington. Maggie Durocher, Coordinator of Fundraising and Development at Hiatus House, says it’s important to shine the light on this ongoing issue. “If you see something, say something and that is so important and that’s a conversation we’ve had with people who have lost loved ones and it’s like their friends knew but they wouldn’t say anything and that’s just heartbreaking.” She says every year they hear from somebody new that’s experienced intimate partner violence. “Last year, one of our speakers that worked for one of the local politicians talked about having survived intimate partner violence and how horrific that was. It really made her quite emotional.” Durocher says while Hiatus House was first created to fly under the radar, they need people to know where they can get support. “People have to know who you are, where you are, and how do they reach out to us. So that’s one of the messages, and that’s part of what Woman Abuse Prevention Month is all about. It’s getting that message out there, telling them where to look, where to go, who to ask for.” Hiatus House continues to raise money for their transitional housing project, A Place to Heal, which will include 40 housing units. They are currently $800,000 away from their fundraising goal to begin construction. The tree lighting in Essex will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Essex Town Hall, the LaSalle event will be held Wednesday and will begin at 6 p.m. at the Civic Centre, the Leamington event will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at Town Hall, while the Lakeshore event on Friday will begin at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. Hiatus House will also be supported at this month’s Charity Pasta night at the Caboto Club on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Hiatus House provides critical services, emergency shelter, and supports to women and children who have been affected by domestic violence and human trafficking.
