How do women walk in these things?
It was a question Town of Barrhead Coun. Ty Assaf asked the crowd as he participated in the final heat of a high-heeled grocery cart foot race between some of the community’s prominent male citizens in the Walk a Mile In Her Shoes event.
The event was created in 2001 by Frank Baird when he suggested to the Valley Trauma Center, in southern California, that they hold a men’s march in an effort to raise awareness about violence issues against women. Baird also wanted to increase the number of opportunities for men to contribute in efforts to end sexualized violence.
Since that first year when a small group of men donned heels in a local park, Walk a Mile has evolved to become a mass movement with events held every year in every part of the globe.
The Barrhead version, which raised more than $4,600 for Barrhead Family Community Services’ Thrive program, participating men had to race shopping carts, while donning women’s footwear, including pumps, platforms and high-heeled shoes, and race through a small obstacle course.
Thrive, so nicknamed because that is what it allows its clients to do, is a family violence and abuse prevention initiative.
Assaf who easily won his qualifying heat thought he figured out the solution which he passed on to his fellow competitors.
“Put all your weight on your toes,” he said.
Unfortunately, Assaf found out while this may have been good advice for the short haul, when competing in multiple races he found out it wasn’t sustainable, and after taking a brief lead in the final heat found his toes couldn’t hold up to the pressure and was overtaken by the event’s winner Barrhead RCMP Const. Nick Crowthers.
Thrive outreach worker Cheri Jantz thanked everyone who participated and made a donation to the event.
“Thrive is such an important program and makes an impact not only to our clients but the entire community because family violence impacts everyone,” she said. “The funds raised by this event will help us continue to provide this service to the people who need it.”
Since the initiative is more of a reactionary program, in that clients reach out to the Thrive after suffering abuse, it does not fall under the auspices of the regular 80/20 FCSS funding model. The majority of the organization’s funding comes from provincial and municipal grants. The province taking the larger portion while the two Barrhead municipalities split the remaining 20 per cent equally.
In September, FCSS executive director Shelly Dewsnap announced Thrive’s funding would run out in March, however, due to its fundraising efforts the program now has enough funding to be sustainable until March 2019.
