The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is hosting a Yards for Yeardley event in hopes to raise awareness for domestic violence. The event will be held at 101 Broad Street Memorial field and is free and opened to anyone who’s interested in attending.
The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on campus is part of The State University of New York Athletic Conference, which is collectively hosting the event across 10 SUNY campuses. The Yards for Yeardley event they are hosting was organized by The One Love Foundation. The foundation’s goal is to honor Yeardley Love, a victim of domestic abuse and to bring alertness to the topic.
The foundation’s website goes in depth on Love and her aspirations as a successful student and friend to those who knew her. “Yeardley Love, who was then a senior lacrosse player at the University of Virginia and three weeks shy of her graduation, was beaten to death by her ex- boyfriend.”
According to www.joinonelove.org, “Relationship violence is a societal epidemic, affecting people of every age, race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Although young adults age 16 to 24 are at greatest risk, they often don’t think relationship violence happens to them.” The foundation aims to raise awareness for domestic violence so people can spot the signs of it happening before it gets too severe.
The SUNYAC SAAC event is the very first attempt of a Yards for Yeardley being hosted across multiple locations. The goal the SUNYAC wants to reach across all 10 universities is 10 million yards. Although Plattsburgh State SAAC wants to surpass their expected goal of one million yards and be the SUNY school with most yards covered.
“Events like these serve a great purpose not only in our campus community but also the Plattsburgh community as a whole. This event has the ability to get valuable information about domestic abuse out to the public. Domestic abuse is not an easy subject to educate the public about, but we hope with a fun, competitive, and knowledgeable event such as Yards For Yeardley we will able to spread the word and educate people on domestic abuse,” said Ian Spear a member of the PSUC’s SUNYAC SAAC. Spear also encouraged people to come out to the event to exercise, socialize and learn more about domestic violence.
“People can come and run as many yards as they want, they can even leave then come back and continue there are no restraints,” said Jordynne Ales a member of the Plattsburgh SUNYAC SAAC. The event will be held Friday, April 28 at 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall.
Email Whitney Leonardo at news@cardinalpointsonline.com
