Safe Harbor Awareness Night at Jazz on the Alley

A historical moment will happen this Thursday night and everyone is invited to attend Jazz on the Alley in downtown Seneca. All five mayors from Oconee County will be at the free event to sign a proclamation designating October 2013 as “The Spirit of Safe Harbor”.   Seneca Mayor Dan Alexander gives details.  “We are doing a big celebration, we feel like it is going to be a very special night and we want to encourage everyone to come out and take part.  What is neat for me, I actually called all the mayors in Oconee County and asked if they could join with me and do a proclamation on October being Domestic Violence Awareness Month.” Last week, a report released by the Violence Policy Center in Washington showed that South Carolina ranks first in the country in the rate of women killed by men. Safe Harbor volunteers will be at Jazz on the Alley to raise money to cover the cost of Oconee County’s new domestic violence shelter facility, explains Daniel Maw, senior vice president of South Carolina Bank and Trust and a member of the Safe Harbor Capital Campaign Committee.  “I would like to ask those here in our community to join us.  We need to break the cycle of domestic violence and we want the people here in the community to be a part of the solution in Oconee County and in South Carolina.  This is not just a county thing, it is a national thing.  We want to change these horrible statistics and offer a place of safety to those people who have nowhere to go.  I think that once we reach this goal, I think then we are on the way, it is not going to be the end of it, it is going to be the beginning of it.” Safe Harbor is a nonprofit organization that provides safe shelter, counseling and advocacy for victims of domestic violence as well as leadership for education and prevention efforts throughout its four-county area of Anderson, Greenville, Oconee and Pickens counties.  To learn more or to make a donation, visit www.safeharborsc.org or call 1-800-291-2139.