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CAMBRIDGE - Rape crisis center raises funds, profile
Posted by: intern on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 06:01 PM |
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By Danielle Dreilinger, Globe Correspondent | May 7, 2006
Some good deeds just go unnoticed. Last year the BostonArea Rape Crisis Center fielded nearly 4,000 hot line calls and averaged one trip a day to the emergency room to help sexual assault victims cope. To protect privacy, much of the agency's work is cloaked by confidentiality. Center advocates don't even reveal their own last names. Despite the lengths the center will go to protect privacy, executive director Gina Scaramella wanted to bring her cause out into the sunlight last Sunday. The agency's inaugural 5K benefit walk drew 300 people.
''We are working hard at becoming more visible," Scaramella said. The community's need for information about abuse ''requires us being more 'out.' "
The walk raised an estimated $8,000, but the real goal was to gain attention. Though lacking the loud chants and cheers of a ''Take Back the Night" event, the walkers practically took over Central Square. Before stoplights and narrow sidewalks broke the line into clumps, walkers spread four blocks down Massachusetts Avenue, from Dana Street all the way to City Hall.
''You will meet survivors on the street today," Cambridge Women's Commission executive director Nancy Ryan told the crowd at Joan Lorenz Park, the starting point. ''They are grateful for the visibility that you are providing."
There were no signs declaring that a walker was a survivor. A rape and domestic abuse survivor addressed the crowd but asked that her last name not be printed due to her continuing concerns for her safety.
Sexual assault remains ''hugely stigmatized," Scaramella said in an interview, and while reporting of the crime has improved, national estimates are that only 42 percent of rapes are reported to police. ''It's sort of widely known as the least-reported offense," she said.
Boston University student Carolyn McMenemy, 20, said she believes sexual assault is still considered ''a private problem . . . something to be ashamed about."
The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, named Nonprofit of the Year last month by the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, is the only provider of free services for rape crisis for Boston and 28 surrounding towns. Now Scaramella also wants to promote the center as an abuse prevention resource. The agency already coordinates a college sexual assault awareness coalition and a community education project in Newton. She sees the need particularly in light of debate over state sex offender watch lists, which she calls merely the ''tip of the iceberg" for identifying sex offenders.
MJ Kane of Jamaica Plain, whose partner works for the center, stopped in front of
the agency's Central Square office to give water to her pug. ''I'm a mother," she said. ''I want [my daughter] to be safe."
Around the corner, music poured from the Pentecostal Tabernacle church as walkers passed, chatting, in groups of three or four.
Several of the center's partner organizations lent support. The state's Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program, which tends sexual assault victims alongside center advocates, was represented. Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts fielded a 50-person team in bright pink tops.
''It's really important for us to show support on a lot of women's issues," said Amy Eiferman, the hotline and access coordinator.
Not all teams had such a serious focus, though. Three women from Cambridge Fitness Buddies, organized by Nasim Memon, 36, of Cambridge, used the walk as part of their exercise routine.
As the walk threaded from Central Square to Inman and then east to Lechmere, the National Organization for Men Against Sexism brought up the rear. ''Rape and sexual assault need to become men's issues," said Tal Peretz, 23, of Allston.
Across Cambridge Street, bar owners Ryan and Patrick Magee read the banners and waved. ''Unfortunately, being in this business, you see all sides of it," said Patrick Magee, 27, of Medford. ''Nothing drives me nuts more than guys hounding girls that are drunk."
The last walkers straggled into Canal Park behind the CambridgeSide Galleria nearly three hours after the start. The wind ruffled a display of shirts created by abuse survivors with slogans like, ''How could you hurt your baby sister?"
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