Help Stop Rape! V-Day "Stop Rape Contest" Launches on U.S. College Campuses
10/11/2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan Celia Swan, press@vday.org
, (212) 445-3288
For completed and attempted rapes, nearly 90% of the victims knew the offender, who was usually a classmate, friend, ex-boyfriend or acquaintance. ("The Sexual Victimization of College Women," National Institute of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics, January 26, 2001)
October 11, 2001 – New York, NY - V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls, announces today the debut of the V-Day 2002 College Stop Rape Contest on U.S. college campuses nationwide. Modeled on the V-Day International Stop Rape Contest, the U.S. College Stop Rape Contest invites full- and part-time students at any college or university in the United States to devise and submit action plans for stopping rape in their communities. V-Day will select three winners and award them grants so that they can implement their winning ideas in their communities. The strategies to stop rape can be unconventional, outrageous, funny, serious, artistic, improvisational and daring. But most of all, they need to be effective, inexpensive to implement, and non-violent. The deadline for entries is December 15, 2001. More information on the V-Day 2002 U.S. College Stop Rape Contest can be found at www.vday.org/college or obtained by writing to Judy@vday.org.
To complement the V-Day 2002 College Stop Rape contest, students can mark their communities as "Rape Free Zones." V-Day’s "Rape Free Zone" stickers, body tattoos, and banners will be available for purchase at the V-Day online store (http://www.eziba.com/vday) after October 20th.
Each year, V-Day promotes creative events, within and in addition to its innovative campaigns and initiatives, to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. The full slate of V-Day 2002 campaigns and initiatives will be announced next week. One of V-Day’s signature campaigns and its longest-running is the popular and far-reaching V-Day College Campaign, which features worldwide student productions of "The Vagina Monologues." Now entering its fourth year, the College Campaign is encouraging wider participation. "230 schools participated in the College Campaign last year, and we’re hoping to triple that number, bringing participation up to 690 this year," says Karen Obel, Director of the College Campaign. More information about the College Campaign – what it is and how to join it – can be found at www.vday.org/college.
About V-Day
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a palpable energy, a fierce catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day helps these organizations to continue and to expand their core work, while we generate broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence.
V-Day is also a day - on or around Valentine's Day in February – for which annual theatrical and artistic events are produced around the world to raise money and to transform consciousness. This annual cluster of events, campaigns, and initiatives (identified as V-Day 2001, V-Day 2002, etc.) include, but are not limited to, the College Campaign, the Worldwide Campaign and the International Stop Rape Contest. To date, Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" has been the centerpiece of these events, the biggest of which was the V-Day 2001 benefit performance at Madison Square Garden.
The money that passes through V-Day and that is raised on its behalf comes from individuals, corporations, foundations, product and book sales, and benefit and commercial performances of "The Vagina Monologues" and is directly donated to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to end rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery. V-Day is non-profit.