Cassie Forsyth | Copy Co-Editor
On Sunday, April 28, students of the Introduction to Gender and Women’s Studies (GWST) class organized a 5K run/walk in honor of sexual assault awareness month. The class is taught by Professor of English and GWST Program Coordinator Annamaria Formichella-Elsden, who required the class to plan a civic engagement project over the semester. The 5K started and ended in Sunset Park, and registration was open all month in order to raise awareness for the cause.
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Formichella-Elsden’s plan was for the class to create an event to raise sexual assault awareness, and the class chose to put together a 5K in order to raise money for the Center Against Abuse and Sexual Assault (CAASA) in Storm Lake. Victim Advocate and Buena Vista/Sac County Coordinator Jenny Ahlers was there to participate in the event and speak on behalf of CAASA before the race. She also explained what CAASA is and why the event was tied to it.
“We are a nonprofit organization that serves an eight county area, and we provide free and confidential services to victims of domestic and sexual violence,” Ahlers said.
The students raised between $350 – $400 by selling t-shirts through a registration fee, and all profits went to CAASA. Ahlers believes this event helped CAASA in more ways than one.
“This event helps CAASA first and foremost by raising awareness and bringing light to the issue of sexual assault as it is often an issue that is swept under the rug,” Ahlers said. “It is silenced, and today, people ran to give a voice to those who may not be able to speak out and to also honor those who have survived sexual assault.”
Sophomore Seth Woodson was among the students who helped plan the event. He supported the cause because it is important, not just on a college campus, but in the community as well.
“It’s important to get the awareness around to everyone in the community to show that there are way too many assaults on people so it’s good to see that and show how or what we can do to improve it,” Woodson said.
The group of students decided to make the event a 5K because it was a way to get Buena Vista University (BVU) students and Storm Lake community members active while raising awareness and money for CAASA. They worked to advertise the event in order to reach out to the community. Freshman Patrice Crall said this was the most important part.
“We had to worry about advertisements and getting them out to the community and people on campus,” Crall said. “We also had to worry about getting shirt sizes and ordering enough shirts, which was a bit of a challenge, but we got it done. It was also the basic logistics, like measuring out the 5K, the water stations, the little things had to all come together.”
After planning for the event all semester, the students were surprised by the number of participants and the amount of money they raised.
“We had 48 people show up, which was awesome,” Crall said, “We weren’t expecting that many.”
Ahlers was thankful the students planned the event in order to help CAASA and raise awareness for the cause.
“It was great to see the large number of participants who came to our first 5K and to see the number of men who also came to support the cause was also wonderful,” Ahlers said.
Photos by Cassie Forsyth
