The San Benito County Board of Supervisors proclaimed April 22 as Walk a Mile in Her Shoes Day in San Benito County and presented the proclamation to Patrice Kuerschner of Emmaus House and Erica Elliot of Community Solutions. The annual event is held in order to bring awareness to domestic violence and its impact on those abused.
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz read part of the proclamation and presented it to Kuerschner and Elliot. As he stepped up to the podium, Kuerschner handed him a pair of bright red shoes he will wear during the walk.
“On behalf of Emmaus House and Community Solutions, I’d like to thank the board for recognizing this,” Kuerschner said. “This is our fifth year and as you can see we have multiple choices and sizes of shoes for gentlemen. We encourage the women to bring your own heels, and in light of what just happened yesterday in San Bernardino County (a shooting at a school in which a teacher and student were murdered), it’s paramount that domestic violence and assault affects everybody in every social, economic background.”
“This is a great community event,” added Elliot. “We’ve had a great turnout every year. Last year it rained and we still had a number of people show up and we’re really grateful to our community in supporting such a great cause. We encourage all of our community to come out April 22 at 10 a.m. It’s usually over by 12:30 p.m., so it’s a quick event, but it shows support to all survivors within our community and it shows this is an issue our community takes seriously.”
De La Cruz said he wanted to share a moment from his personal experience about the pain of walking in high heels, comparing the pain of wearing high heels as a symbol of the pain survivors have experienced.
“I’ve talked to our mayor (Ignacio Velazquez) last night and he’s also going to attend,” he said and then referred to Victor Gomez, former Hollister City Councilman whose sister was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. “Thank you Victor and thank you Mr. Mayor. I look forward to this.”
The start and finish of the walk is on the grassy city lot located at the corner of Fourth and San Benito streets (400 San Benito St.) Proceeds from the event benefit Emmaus House, a Hollister-based domestic violence shelter for women and children, and Community Solutions, a nonprofit human services agency serving Santa Clara and San Benito counties.
Website: www.walkamilesanbenito.org.
