V‑DAY CORNWALL JOINS GLOBAL EFFORT TO STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS

Feb. 19, 2013 – Cornwall - On March 2, 2013, at 7pm, V‑Day Cornwall will present a one-night only benefit reading of Eve Ensler’s award wining play The Vagina Monologues at the Ramada Inn.

Last year over 5,800 V-Day benefits were held around the world raising funds and awareness towards ending violence against women. These highly successful events raised over $5 million through performance of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play.

For the fourth year in a row Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) for Women SDG & A will present a benefit production of The Vagina Monologues. Tickets are $15 ($20 at the door) and may be purchased at the ScotiaBank outlets in both Cornwall and Maxville.

All proceeds will be going to SASS for Women to raise funds for their public education program which permits them to offer prevention/awareness activities in schools and to the community at large. The funds will also be used to keep in position another counselor that has been brought on board to meet the demands of the community.

WHAT ARE THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES?

Hailed by The New York Times as “funny” and “poignant” and by the Daily News as “intelligent” and “courageous,” The Vagina Monologues, which was first performed off-Broadway by Ms. Ensler, dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women’s experiences. Ms. Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world - from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem to Oklahoma City.

WHAT IS V‑DAY?

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Any One Of Us: Words From Prison, screenings of V-Day’s documentary Until The Violence Stops, and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You, Spotlight Teach-Ins and V-Men workshops, to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

In Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, V-Day commits ongoing support to build movements and anti-violence networks. Working with local organizations, V-Day provided hard-won funding that helped open the first shelters for women in Egypt and Iraq; sponsored annual workshops and three national campaigns in Afghanistan; convened the “Confronting Violence” conference of South Asian women leaders; and donated satellite-phones to Afghan women to keep lines of communication open and action plans moving forward. V-Day was instrumental in the founding of Karama, a program working in Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon that works to build upon and strengthen efforts to end violence against women by bringing together local women’s organizations and other civil society groups in collaboration, analysis and advocacy at national, regional and international levels.

The V-Day movement is growing at a rapid pace throughout the world, in 140 countries from Europe to Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and all of North America. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities,” in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine’s Top Ten Charities, and in 2010 was named as one of the Top-Rated organizations on GreatNonprofits. In eleven years, the V-Day movement has raised over $85 million.

The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

To learn more about V‑Day Cornwall, call 613-932-1755 or e-mail the organization at director@sassforwomen.ca. To learn more about V‑Day and its campaigns visit http://www.vday.org.

Special Thanks

SASS for Women would like to thank the following local businesses for contributing items for the silent auction:

Summit Fitness, Virginia Lake, Above & Beyond Esthetics, A Cut Above, Adele Wilson (Zumba), Delormier Family, Cornwall Square, Renew, Sub Place, Vital Glow Esthetics, The Grind, Best Western, Shopper’s Drug Mart (Ottawa), Carol Anne Boisvenue, Pommier Jewellers.

SASS for Women would also like to thank the following individuals for their financial support of this event:

Ron Chenier, Cathy Grant and Nada Kovinich.