INNISFAIL – Mary Dawn Eggleton looked out from the stage at Centennial Park’s natural amphitheatre and offered an important message to citizens who no longer wanted to live in silence.
“We meet everybody where they’re at. If you are looking to leave, great. We're here to help you do that. If you aren't sure if you want to leave, we're here for non-judgment; we're here to support you,” said Eggleton, the program manager for Innisfail and District Victims Services.
“Am I in an abusive relationship? We can have that conversation too,” she added. “It's your journey that we will walk beside.”
And so it emphatically was on Oct. 1 for Eggleton and several other speakers attending the 3rd annual Innisfail March Against Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Abuse.
They all brought heartfelt messages to break the silence. Supporters and the curious listened intently to each one. There were many tears.
But at last there is hope.
“I think it's like any other issue that has been kind of a taboo topic,” said Cindy Messaros, an Innisfail town councillor who was joined at the event by colleagues mayor Jean Barclay and Coun. Jason Heistad. “The more you get it out there, the more you're going to help prevent it.”
The march began with organizers and featured guests meeting supporters at Legion Park at 11 a.m.
With organizers Lisa Robinson and Erika Fetterly leading the way with the movement’s purple banner held high, up to 75 supporters marched west along Main Street to the top of Cemetery Hill and then down to Centennial Park.
“I think there are too many people without support, and not enough knowledge on the subjects being shared,” said a supporter who gave the name of Christine, and was holding another banner with a score of names of domestic violence victims.
Before introducing featured speakers at Centennial Park, Robinson said the event was created when she and Fetterly realized the community was not talking enough about the problem of domestic violence.
“By being here today, we all acknowledge that we care about this issue and are ready to start conversations that will help us all become a part of the solution,” said Fetterly.
Those conversations included a passionate presentation from Ashley Christoffersen whose sister Kirsten Gardner, the mother of young twin boys, was murdered on March 22, 2021.
Like last year, her audience was moved by her ongoing pain, along with her strength, as she trudges through the aftermath of her family’s ongoing horror of dealing with the tragic consequences of domestic violence.
As Christoffersen spoke, her sibling Bailey Whalen lovingly held a portrait of Kirsten, whose accused killer - Ross Arran McInnes – is not scheduled to go to trial until Feb. 5, 2024.
Dianne Kuglin, owner and counsellor at Innisfail’s Standing Stones Counselling, along with her agency’s Jacob Fox, a provisional registered provisional psychologist, offered a detailed program of local support.
Kuglin said while the issue of domestic violence is as critically important today as it was 15 years ago there’s still a need for victims to find the right support.
“We want people to recognize abuse, and we want them to get help, and we want people that are supporting to be supportive, not judgmental,” said Kuglin. “People are well-intentioned but sometimes they think they take people on as a project or they think we've got to fix them or they tell them what they should or shouldn't do. And that's not helpful.
“People need to come to that awareness on their own, and if we're supportive and compassionate then they will find a safe person.”
