WINNEMUCCA - The HGH employee committee celebrated Denim Day in Nevada on April 24, bringing awareness to sexual violence.
In addition to wearing denim, pins and hanging up posters, the employees decided to take the extra step and make a "change." The employees donated their change during lunch and raised $100 for Scrap Domestic Violence (ScrapDV).
According to ScrapDV Executive Director JoAnn Casalez, "the money will help the organization carry out its mission of bringing awareness to domestic and sexual violence in Humboldt County and the state of Nevada"
ScrapDV is a charitable organization that partners with mining, industrial and manufacturing companies to donate their proceeds from the recycling of their scrap steel to fund domestic abuse programs within the state.
ScrapDV uses these donations to create proactive awareness campaigns, such as: "No More Domestic Violence," "Know More" (October), "Teen Dating Violence Awareness" (February) and Denim Day in Nevada (April).
In addition, ScrapDV grants much needed funding to Nevada-based nonprofit organizations that provide programs and resources targeted to address domestic violence. For more information, visit www.scrapdv.org
The story behind Denim Day
It all started in Italy in the 1990s.
An 18-year-old girl is picked up by her 45-year-old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully rapes her.
Threatened with death if she tells anyone, he makes her drive the car home. Later that night she tells her parents, and they help and support her to press charges. The perpetrator gets arrested and is prosecuted. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.
He appeals the sentence. The case makes it all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released.
In a statement by the chief judge, he argued, "because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex."
Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same, which in turn spread to Patricia Giggans, executive director of Peace Over Violence, and Denim Day in Los Angeles was born.
The first Denim Day in Los Angeles was in April 1999, and has continued every year since.
Denim Day has been promoted in Nevada for several years and it has now grown into a statewide initiative sponsored by NCASV and ScrapDV in 2013.[[In-content Ad]]
