Video story by Bella Jackson: Led by SUNY Oswego's It's On Oz, more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff supported the One Love Foundation in April 2017 by walking, running and rolling more than 5 million for Yards for Yeardley, a national initiative to publicize and prevent relationship violence, especially among college-age students.
SUNY Oswego is taking part in their second annual Yards for Yeardley event. Campus community members are invited to take laps around the quad to help spread awareness of dating violence.
"I would say that we’re walking to remember and walking to prevent," said Amanda Kenney, a 2016 human development graduate who organized last year's Yards for Yeardley and returned to volunteer. "Yeardley was a senior at UVA, a lacrosse player and also a member of a sorority on campus. It was May, 2010. when she was murdered by her ex boyfriend. So her mom and her sister started One Love to honor her."
Yards for Yeardley originally started for sports teams across the country to commit to running 1 million yards in 30 days in memory of Yeardley Love. Since then, Yards for Yeardley has evolved to be a campus challenge nationwide. SUNY Oswego was the first school to complete one million yards in a day, with a total 1.67 million yards in 2016.
"For me the big thing that got me interested was just hearing the numbers and knowing I didn’t know much," Kenney said.
"I think my personal connection of knowing someone who was tragically killed was my main reason for volunteering last year and this year also," said Cassie Para, campus life coordinator at SUNY Oswego.
This year SUNYAC challenged all SUNY campuses to achieve the goal of walking or running 10 million yards total. The college hoped to surpass its previous record and take the win for the SUNY campus with the most yards.
"When I first started out it was to be able to educate others and educate myself on all the issues," said William Zenyuk, a junior philosophy major. "And now being able to hear people’s stories and get to know them personally, I want to be there to advocate for them raise awareness and continue to challenge.
Statistics say 1 in 3 women and one in every 1 in 4 men will suffer from dating violence, Zenyuk noted.
Nearly 50 percent of these women and nearly 40 percent of these men experience violence for the first time between the ages of 18 and 24. It was also reported that 58 percent of college students say they don’t know what to do to help someone who is a victim of relationship violence.
"We’re walking here to honor the lives for people like Yeardley who have lost their lives and also to create awareness so we can prevent this from happening at SUNY Oswego and anywhere else," said Kelsey Gillett, a 2014 SUNY Oswego graduate now working with Services to Aid Families. "Last year we already had a ton of involvement we walked over a million yards. This year we’ve had 600 people sign up (before the event), and we support you if this is affecting you in some way."
The final totals were more than 1,000 participants going about 5.69 miles -- highest among the SUNYAC competitors, and another indication of SUNY Oswego's strong support.