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Castlegar residents participate in Clothesline Project

Castlegar residents participate in Clothesline Project
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(Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)

Castlegar residents gathered outside City Hall to call for the end of violence against women last Wednesday.

T-shirts — decorated with messages like “Please stop the violence now!” — hung on clotheslines strung across Spirit Square for this year’s Clothesline Project, an international initiative that addresses violence against women.

“It is kind of bringing out the dirty laundry,” explained Martine Oosting, organizer of the Castlegar event and a family counsellor with Castlegar &District Community Service Society (CDCSS). “We display lots of T-shirts and people were able to express all of their feelings and thoughts about violence, and also to support others who have been dealing with it.”

The T-shirts were decorated by children and adults who are clients of some of the community partners involved in the event, like CDCSS’ Youth Council and Victim Services Program, Freedom Quest Regional Youth Services, Castlegar Mental Health and the Circle of Indigenous Nations Society (COINS).

The organizations involved in this year’s Clothesline Project had booths set up at the event so that people could learn more about the services they offer.

There were also a number of guest speakers who attended, including Cpl. Brett Turner. He reported that 31 incidents of domestic violence were reported to the Castlegar RCMP last year and that in 17 of those cases charges were forwarded to Crown counsel.

Turner was accompanied by Phoenix, a therapy dog who started around this time last year and has been offering comfort to victims of violence.

Some guests also provided entertainment, like the students from Twin Rivers Elementary School who performed “7 Years” by Lukas Graham on ukuleles.

The T-shirts on display were mostly decorated over the last month. Leading up to the event, Oosting went around to schools in the area explaining the project and those students also decorated T-shirts.

“The process is a big part of it. … I go out to schools, I talk with the kids about this issue — I engage them with it — so that is kind of a part of this…. It’s the process leading up to this and then today you can see the outcome,” Oosting explained.

For those who hadn’t had an opportunity to decorate a T-shirt, she drew a giant T-shirt on a sheet that anyone could add to the day of the event.

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Twin Rivers Elementry School students performed “7 Years” by Lukas Graham on ukeleles. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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Cpl. Brett Turner from the Castlegar RCMP introduced therapy dog Pheonix at the Clothesline Project last Wednesday. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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(Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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(Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)