{"id":5244,"date":"2017-02-22T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T16:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5244"},"modified":"2017-02-21T17:43:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T01:43:29","slug":"bringing-awareness-westerns-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/bringing-awareness-westerns-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing awareness to Western\u2019s campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Paige Scofield\r\nCampus Life Editor<\/pre>\n
The holiday Valentine\u2019s Day is often filled with romance and tender moments between partners, but Western\u2019s Abby\u2019s House decided to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day a different way, with two different events on campus.\"\"<\/p>\n
On Feb. 13, Abby\u2019s House held an event in the Werner University Center called Palentine\u2019s Day. This event was held for those who wished to show their love in a platonic way rather than in a romantic way to those they care for. Nikki Wood, a senior communications major and Abby\u2019s House volunteer advocate who created the event, said she was inspired by the popular holiday, \u201cGalentine\u2019s Day,\u201d from the hit television series \u201cParks and Rec\u201d starring Amy Poehler.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to be more gender neutral and include everybody for a celebration of friendship, so we called it Palentine\u2019s Day,\u201d said Wood. \u201cI did the table during my office hours, and basically we just had hearts that people could write messages to their friends on and we had chocolate and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
This event was free to any who wanted to participate in making Valentine\u2019s for those they care about.<\/p>\n
\u201cCelebrating friendship and platonic relationships is really important. We put a lot of emphasis on romantic love,\u201d concluded Wood.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 14, Abby\u2019s House held the event, \u201c1 Billion Rising: Revolution,\u201d in solidarity against the exploitation of women. The event was held on the Werner University Center Plaza, and incorporated handprints to create a message of support and awareness for women\u2019s issues including: physical or sexual abuse, human trafficking, reproductive rights, intimate partner violence and cultural appropriation.<\/p>\n
\u201c1 Billion Rising is an organization that puts on events on Valentine\u2019s Day, to build awareness about different issues surrounding women,\u201d said Hailey Wren, a junior elementary education major and Abby\u2019s House volunteer advocate. \u201cSpecifically about how one billion, and rising, women are affected by assault sexually or if they\u2019ve experienced violence in their lifetime. This year we\u2019re talking about the exploitation of women around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked why she thought it was important to have events like this on Western\u2019s campus, Wren answered, \u201cBecause it\u2019s something that I feel like we think happens elsewhere, and we don\u2019t realize that it actually happens here, it happens on our campus, happens in our state and in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christina Garcia, a sophomore community health\/public health major and Abby\u2019s House volunteer advocate, explained why it\u2019s important to hold an event like this on Valentine\u2019s Day: \u201cIt\u2019s very significant, because it gives students something to think about. People need to be aware of the issues that go on on campus and around the world,\u201d said Garcia. \u201c1 Billion Rising is something that happens around the world, but we like to hold this event on campus, so we can do a little extra.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abby\u2019s House is located downstairs in the Werner University Center and is a open place for anyone to come if they need help or if they just want a place to relax. In the future, Abby\u2019s House will be holding many more events on Western\u2019s campus. If interested in future Abby\u2019s House events, or looking for more information on Abby\u2019s House, visit wou.edu\/abbyshouse<\/a>, call at 503-838-8219 or visit their office.<\/p>\n
Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Paige Scofield Campus Life Editor The holiday Valentine\u2019s Day is often filled with romance and tender moments between partners, but Western\u2019s Abby\u2019s House decided to celebrate Valentine\u2019s Day a different way, with two different events on campus. On Feb. 13, Abby\u2019s House held an event in the Werner University Center called Palentine\u2019s Day. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":5280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}