Gentlemen, get ready to start your – er, wait – strut your stuff.
The annual Walk a Mile in her Shoes event is back and looking for participants to walk down Main Street in a pair of red high heels.
The Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) will be hosting the event for the fourth year in hopes of raising $10,000 and awareness toward ending violence against women.
“It’s a fun way to get everyone involved in the issue of violence against women,” said WRC director Colleen Arnold. “Our other events tend to have more woman participating, but this is all about the men getting involved.”
Fathers, sons, uncles, grandfathers, brothers and friends are encouraged to sign up for the walk, which will take place Friday, July 3 during the Flin Flon Trout Festival.
Dialogue
Arnold says by having men participating in events to help end violence against women it opens the dialogue.
“It helps get the conversation started between kids, brothers, fathers. It gets them more involved,” said Arnold.
Each participant will receive a pair of specially made red high heels to experience what it’s like to Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.
They will receive a t-shirt as well as a placard with various messages, including “Man enough to walk a mile in her shoes.”
The male participants are asked to each raise a minimum of $75 in an effort to reach the Women’s Resource Centre’s goal of $10,000.
“The sooner you register the more pledges you can collect,” encourages Arnold, though she does say men can register the day of the event as long as they have the required pledges collected.
Men will also report their shoe size upon registering, giving them the best chance to have a pair of shoes that fit them.
The men will start at Pioneer Square with a short tutorial on how to walk in high heels as well as opening remarks. From there, the men will carry on down Main Street and back to Pioneer Square.
Volunteers will walk beside the men with collections buckets for donations to add to the final total.
The centre first ran the event in 2012 with 30 men raising $11,500. Last year’s group of 12 men raised $5,000.
Flin Flon has raised a total of $23,500 through the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes campaign in the past three years.
Those who are interested in registering this year for the walk are asked to contact Arnold at the Women’s Resource Centre at 204-681-3105.
