Popular sports blog Streaking the Lawn released a new campaign Nov. 10 to raise money for the One Love Foundation through fan support for the men’s basketball team.
STL’s campaign challenges fans to make a “Pack Line Pledge” and donate money whenever the men’s basketball team holds their opponent to a score less than 50 points. Brian Leung, founder of STL and graduate of the University Law School, said the blog hopes the campaign will help to raise awareness.
“This year, we wanted to do something that actively engaged our readers,” Leung said in an email. “With the hype and fanfare surrounding the Virginia men's basketball season, and in particular, Coach Tony Bennett's stingy defense, we thought the Pack Line Pledge would be a creative way to do some good in the community.”
The One Love Foundation was founded in honor of late fourth-year College student Yeardley Love, a varsity lacrosse player who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in May 2010 as a result of relationship violence. The organization works to raise awareness and combat domestic violence.
“There's been a lot in the news this year about domestic violence, especially surrounding Ray Rice,” Leung said. “Selecting the One Love foundation was an easy choice given their deep roots within the University community.”
Claire Kaplan, program director of Gender Violence and Social Change at the University Women’s Center, said the issue of domestic abuse is important to understand, especially in the University setting.
“People think it starts in a married relationship, but it starts in [a] dating relationship,” Kaplan said. “Yeardley Love wasn’t the first U.Va. student to be murdered by a partner.”
Educating students in the University setting about domestic violence is important, as students may not feel comfortable confronting these serious issues, Leung said.
“We think this is especially important in a university setting where college students are exposed to such a wide variety of types of people and forms of relationships, and may not yet be comfortable speaking up for themselves, for their friends or for complete strangers,” he said.
Kaplan said it was important that the blog addresses the issue of domestic abuse because the platform of social media makes the discussion of the issue more accessible to the public, especially to students.
“It gets people asking ‘what can I do as a fan, what can I do as an athlete, what can we do as a media organization, what can I do with a friend in a relationship that’s pretty unhealthy?’” she said.
One Love recently released their ‘Be 1 For Change’ campaign to educate women about relationship violence. Concurrently, the Women’s Center has multiple initiatives in place to teach about and combat domestic abuse. It's newest, the Green Dot program, is designed to educate students, faculty and staff about methods to help family and friends with unhealthy relationships.
“Green Dot is a bystander intervention program that aims to change the culture that supports power-based violence,” Kaplan said. “This is not just about women; this is about intervening in a relationship.”
The Women’s Center also offers different types of training, such as the Survivor Support Network, which educates students, faculty and staff on supporting the victims of sexual and domestic abuse.
“Just understanding them [and] learning how not to be victim-blaming is important,” Kaplan said.
Students can take the “Pack Line Pledge” on STL’s site, www.streakingthelawn.com.
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