Hey everyone!
Just wanted to write a follow up blog about our walk! What a fabulous day it was! The Walk Staff gathered around 7:00am to help set-up! We had a huge food tent and lots of tables where we served breakfast and lunch to the hungry walkers and workers!! We were extremely grateful to Knot Just Bagels in Woodbridge for donating the yummy bagels we all enjoyed as well as to the Starbucks in Iselin for the coffee and tea! Dunkin Donuts also supplied us with some yummy munchkins to keep the sugar rush going!
The stage was set-up in preparation for our speakers and our awesome DJ, Tiffany Welch, played some fabulous tunes to set the mood for the day!!
Our first speaker of the day was DVRT member Louise!! She helped start us off by sharing some important facts about Domestic Violence and how important it is to be informed about this epidemic and how to get help if needed! She also spoke about all the hard work our team puts in to help spread the word about our group and the services we offer!
Next we had Woodbridge's Mayor McCormick speak about how important this group is to the community. We really appreciated the mayor taking time out of his super busy schedule to stop by and support us! Props Mayor McCormick!! After Mayor McCormick we had Council-Woman Brenda Velasco stand up to say a few words about the importance of our team and how proud she was of all the great work we do for our community! Thanks Councilwoman Velasco for the awesome support!!
Next up was our very own Captain Peggy Schmidt who is our police liaison for the DV team!! She helps make sure we are safe when responding to a DV call and helps us coordinate with the police officers to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible so we can help the victims as much as we can together!! She gave the Woodbridge DV team props for their outstanding work in the community and she also helped introduce our last speaker - one of the many survivors of domestic violence.
I have to say listening to the survivor's plight from the survivor herself was so moving. She talked about the pain her and her children went through and their struggles to over come their situation and how they came to seek help with the Woodbridge DVRT. The courage she had to get up and speak about her own situation was unbelievable. I know I started tearing up listening to her story. It was an important reminder about why we were there that day and who we help by volunteering our time!!
After our wonderful speakers were done we kicked off the walk just about 10am! We were lucky enough to have the Woodbridge High School marching band there to help play us off!! While it was a little chilly earlier in the day the sun was shinning now as all the walkers marched on under the purple and white balloon archway from Floral Expressions! The walk was 5K - roughly 3 times around the park. Walkers were able to read some important DV facts on signs that had been placed around the tracker earlier in the day.
When everyone completed their walk we all gathered back at the food tent for yummy Hot-dogs and great conversation! Everyone especially enjoyed the delicious cake donated by Dorsi's Bakery!!
We concluded the day with a little electric slide, some line dancing, and lots of hugs!! The money we raised is going to be a tremendous help towards our goal of ending Domestic Violence!!
A super huge thank you to everyone who donated to this awesome day - whether it was your time, money, food, support or love - we appreciate it more then words can express!!!
