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Walk a Mile runs Friday

Lace ‘em up.
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SOWIN’s annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes march starts at 4 p.m on July 7 in Penticton’s Rotary Park. Western News file photo

Lace ‘em up.

Friday afternoon is the day of the fourth annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes fundraiser in support of the South Okanagan Women in Need Society.

Starting at 4 p.m. at it’s new location in Rotary Park at Martin Street and Lakeshore Drive, this year’s event will also serve as a way to raise awareness and education about abuse of women and children.

“There is a need for more space (to help those in need of support services) and I think the communities in the South Okanagan, Penticton are very supportive of the South Okanagan Women in Need and what SOWINS does,” said Marni Adams, society development advisor. “We are just going to keep building and get bigger and better and create a larger event and raise more money for women and children who need our help.”

As of Thursday afternoon just over $19,000 of this year’s $25,000 goal had been raised.

Once again this year there will be the flag presentation at the location of the walk’s start. Small, coloured flags are placed in the ground representing the statistics from the past year.

“That includes the number of women who had bed stays with us and the number of children,” said Adams.

“One of the sad statistics people will see is the numbers we had to turn away because we didn’t have space of somewhere for them to go.”

The problem of a lack of lodging for the need is being helped somewhat with the opening of the new house which is currently underway.

During the past year SOWINS was able to provide emergency shelter: 2,339 bed stays for women, 135 children were helped through the agency’s Children Who Witnessed Abuse program and 173 senior women received various services from the Mature Outreach counselling program.

The walk itself starts at 4:45 p.m.