In October, a young member of a Fort Collins roller derby team received a shot to the head and was severely injured. While she is now responsive, she is still in intense recovery and the medical bills her family faces are through the roof. The Student Ambassadors club at Fossil Ridge High School decided to take action and promote a Domestic Violence Awareness Week from February 4th to February 8th to raise money for her family but also to raise awareness for the level of domestic violence present even in our little bubble of Fort Collins.
FRHS junior Paige Closson, a member of Student Ambassadors, has a very passionate place in her heart for this issue and shared a little bit about what is being done to raise awareness this week and ultimately why awareness of this issue is important. This week, there are many events taking place during A and B lunch and throughout the school day. There is an M&M jar in the commons where a donation of a dollar is required to guess the amount of candy pieces and the person closest to the actual amount wins. Penny wars will be taking place the entire week and each class has a jar. The object is to put as many pennies as possible in the other classes’ jars and the class with the least amount of pennies will win. Also, Student Ambassadors will be selling purple ribbons to demonstrate support of being against domestic violence as well as candy. All of the proceeds will go to the injured girl and her family. But, an equally important issue is the awareness that will be raised at Fossil.
Closson said, “As teenagers in Fort Collins, we don’t think that domestic violence happens here, but it does all of the time. Domestic violence isn’t only a black eye or physical abuse but also verbal and emotional abuse.”
Hopefully, the students at Fossil will be clad in purple ribbons and the penny jars will be almost full as we all become more aware of the national and local issue that is domestic violence and take a small step as a school to put an end to it.
