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Rock out: Local groups’ event aims to raise awareness

By Staff | Oct 4, 2017

Since October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Mothers Empowering Other Women Inc. and the Facebook group Lehigh Acres Rocks are throwing an event to raise awareness for the issue.

Rock Out Domestic Violence will take place Oct. 7 from noon to 3 p.m. at Pelican’s SnoBalls & mini golf, at 601 Williams Ave.

“We decided to let people come to Pelican’s SnoBalls and they can have a chance to paint some rocks,” Kimberly Jacobs, founder of MEOW, said. “We’re going to try to give them out to domestic violence survivors in our community.”

Currently, there is a huge rock painting movement throughout the country.

“They paint them and they hide them and then they ask for you to go to that Facebook page for that rock group and rocks will travel,” Jacobs said. “Some of the Lehigh Acres rocks have been found way up north. They’ve been found down in the Keys. All over the place.”

She explained that she wants to raise awareness about the issue of domestic violence because most attention during October goes toward breast cancer as it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“Let’s target domestic violence,” Jacobs said. “You don’t hear a lot about that. It’s still a huge issue in our communities and still to this day a lot of it is swept under the table.”

The issue of domestic violence is a personal one for her.

“I’ve got family members that have gone through it here lately,” Jacobs said.

A U.S. Army veteran, she started MEOW a couple years ago.

“I just lost my husband of 30 years in 2013,” Jacobs said. “I think God put it on me to give a platform for women to connect that have overcome all the different obstacles of life. To offer mentorship to women.”

She noted that there are many sides to domestic violence.

“It’s not as cut and dry as so many people think it should be,” Jacobs said. “Most people think, ‘Well, she should just leave the circumstances,’ but don’t realize the full gambit that women go through. There are men out there, too.”

“Sadly, it doesn’t matter who you are, what kind of income you have – it happens anywhere and everywhere,” she added.

For people who witness domestic violence, Jacobs offered advice on what to do.

“If they see something and are not sure, call the non-emergency number of your community,” she said. “What you see might make a difference in helping somebody get out of a bad situation.”

It is the first time that the groups have put the event on.

For more information on Rock Out Domestic Violence, visit online at: www.meowmatters.org or on Facebook at “MEOW Mothers Empowering Other Women Inc.” or “Lehigh Acres Rocks.”