A Breath of Fresh Air for Violent Relationship Protection

Sometimes I know we sound like a broken record. It seems especially so when we talk about raising funds for domestic violence and dating violence prevention. But there are those caring people that are willing to give just based on the belief that it is important for each of us to brighten our corner of the earth.

This is the attitude we continually find with our friends in El Paso, TX. Whether it is a donation to help defray the cost of putting a program together or taking a message to the masses, or working to be sure the message given is acted upon, there's always a group of angels standing ready to take hold of the line and pull the ox out of the mire.

We spent a few days in El Paso this week and now have the structure in place to go forward with our new play entitled, I Have This Friend, which is, of course, our dating violence awareness musical.

Hector Serrano, Drama Coordinator, with El Paso Community College has decided to make this his 2011 spring production and hopes to present it in high schools in the El Paso area.

The Center Against Family Violence plans to work with EPCC to get needed infrastructure in place in the schools to assist teen victims and their parents end this pandemic in our country's schools!

Hopefully, this will be a model for other schools in the country to follow and will save thousands of lives, prevent drug use and keep kids in school.

Thanks to all of you wonder, caring people that make this effort possible and hopefully prevent hundreds of teens escape the trap.

On the Road

Fix the Hurt and Domestic Violence the Musical? have been on the road again.

Linda, John and Loren were on the road this week with six performances in New Mexico and Texas. What a time we had along with our fabulous El Paso Cast. This crew worked their hearts out with a performance in Alamogordo, New Mexico on Wednesday night at the Flickinger Theater in downtown Alamogordo, with 500 people in attendance. Our thanks to Scot Key, the DA for the 12th District of NM and his staff - Kimberly and Melanie - thank you.

Then Thursday morning there were two performances at the Canutillo High School, with a whopping 800 high school kids per performance, thank to Rosario Olivera. Ever tried to hold the attention of 800 kids at a time? With a intermittently working sound system? With workmen on stage during the performance? Well this cast did it! They nailed it so well the kids were riveted during the entire performance! After the last performance, Ginny Green was sitting on the edge of the stage, I think resting from the rigors of the pace and about seven freshmen girls gathered around her and started asking questions. One fifteen year old girl told that she had gotten pregnant at age 14, the baby was a year old now, and she was not with the father, but he still had access to her through the baby and was abusive. She expressed how she appreciated learning a great deal during the performance and how it would help her deal with the situation. The evening attendance was lightly attended, but a great performance.

On Friday morning we traveled back to Alamogordo to perform for 600 airmen at Holloman AFB. What a sight, airmen - predominantly men, looking with wonder at the stag thinking “what the heck am I in for now?” and the base commander and his wife sitting in the front row. Within two to three minutes, the cast had them and held them the entire show with a standing ovation. Many, many commented that it was great and they didn’t know what to expect. A survey card was filled out by each attendee and Linda got a look at them. The top rating was a five and all she saw were marked with a five. And comments like, "great job", "good information", etc. A huge "thank you" to Ellen Madison-Holtz and Sgt. Julie Davis.

The places you can make a difference? High School and Military bases!!

The final performance at 9:10 in the morning Saturday was for District 32 District Attorney’s Help, Hope and Healing conference with approximately 600 in attendance. It was great to see Stephanie Dodson, CAFV, Virginia Gonzales, MADD, Jaime Esparza, District Attorney and many of my very supportive friends. Special thanks to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Apadoca for their support. Region 19 is a magnificant facility and we enjoyed performing there. The crowd was engaged and receptive and there were more than a few tears.

It was a great 4 days, we are tired, but excited for our next opportunity to bring Domestic Violence the Musical? to communities everywhere - we hope we can make a difference.