By Catherine Dunn
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
The index cards were small and plain, but the few lines of scrawled handwriting that they contained delivered disturbing and powerful messages:
"My girlfriend was sexually assaulted at the age of 15."
"A woman I know was raped by a stranger who held her and her friend at gunpoint..."
These stories and others submitted by University students crowd the Rape Story Wall at the Sexual Assault Awareness Week table on the Lawn.
The wall is one way that SAFE and One in Four, two sexual assault education groups on Grounds, are getting their message out to the University.
"Our main goal is to give people a chance to share their experiences and to inform people of how important of an issue [sexual assault] is at U.Va.," One in Four president Daniel Penn said.
Through Thursday, both groups will pass out index cards and collect anonymous stories of student encounters with sexual assault to post on the wall. They also will pass out purple awareness ribbons and information on University and Charlottesville resource organizations.
"Before we can teach people how to end the violence they first have to know that it exists," said fourth-year College student Todd Hansen, a One in Four member.
One in Four's name refers to the statistic that one in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape since their 14th birthday.
Kai-Ting Yang, a member of SAFE, says that the story wall "has made a huge impression" on those who have stopped to read it.
One in Four members wrote the first wave of stories to be posted on the board about women they knew who had been sexually assaulted.
As everyone read their stories aloud during their Monday night meeting, "every single story burned me up inside," said third-year Engineering student Jon Bruneau, another member of One in Four.
Penn added that the story wall "reaffirms everyone in our group's resolve to be active in this cause."
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