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Smith totes purple for domestic violence awareness
Amid the blue and red of a Chicago Cubs playoff run this month, visitors to Almost Home and the Swizzle Stick will see something that clashes a bit with the chosen colors of owner Gail Smith’s favorite baseball team — a Purple Purse.
That’s right, purple. No, Smith hasn’t changed her allegiance to the Colorado Rockies. Instead, the purse is meant as a conversation starter during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Designed by “Scandal” star Kerry Washington, the Tory Burch purse is one of 100 given out by Allstate agency owners across the country to serve as community ambassadors during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Allstate agent Matt Welker and office manager Sally Fowler chose Smith as someone who is visible in the community through her business ownership, First Friday events, Greencastle Music Fest and wine dinners.
“Gail has become the symbol of a successful woman,” Fowler said. “As such it is my pleasure and honor to ask her to be our Purple Purse recipient this year.”
Welker credited Fowler, also a volunteer for Putnam County Family Support Services, for spearheading the Purple Purse program in recent years.
Through her efforts, women like Smith have been able to help promote domestic violence awareness in recent years.
“Thank you so much for asking me,” Smith said. “It’s an honor.” Serving as the Purple Purse doesn’t entail much commitment, Welker pointed out.
“All we’re asking is that you carry around this nice purse,” Welker said.
From there, the purse just has to serve as a conversation starter.
Smith said that with her duties in the restaurant, she’s often seen without a purse. Instead of carrying it while serving in the various capacities of a small business owner, Smith may display it prominently during the month, hoping to start conversations in the restaurant.
Starting her own conversation, Smith began asking questions about domestic violence locally.
“Is there a significant amount of abuse in the county?” she asked.
She learned that there were 469 primary victims in domestic violence cases in Putnam County in 2015. This does not include the children affected by such incidents nor those women who did not report incidents of violence.
Taking a wider view, the numbers are more staggering. One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime — that’s more than breast cancers, ovarian cancer and lung cancer combined.
One important aspect of domestic violence awareness that has been overlooked is financial abuse. An invisible weapon that keeps women trapped in abusive relationships, financial abuse can include lack of access to the family checking account and also the abuser ruining the victim’s credit.
Experts believe that financial abuse occurs in 99 percent of all cases of domestic violence.
To promote awareness of financial abuses, Allstate will partner with Family Support Services and Ascena to conduct a two-part Moving Ahead through Financial Management class from 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 20 and 27.
Misty Wiesneth of Ascena has taken a big role in coordinating and arranging the class.
Wiesneth also coordinated a purse drive among Ascena employees. The purses are to be filled with the basic necessities a woman needs in starting over after leaving an abusive relationship.
Individuals who could benefit from the Moving Ahead class should be referred to Family Support Services at 653-4820.
The awareness promotion doesn’t begin and end with Smith either. All women in attendance Thursday when Mayor Bill Dory proclaimed October to be Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the city received two Purple Purse charms.
The first charm was to be kept and to function as a conversation starter in the same vein as Smith’s purse. The second was to be presented to someone who has been an inspiration in the women’s lives or someone they wish to inspire.
This is the third year of the Purple Purse campaign in Greencastle. The past two recipients were County Recorder Tracy Bridges and former Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray.