Aurora's Blog

Edited to add: While you’re more than welcome to read/learn about the project here(!), a whole new clearer website has has been built just for the 882 project!

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Here we go! My new project!

THE BIG IMPORTANT PART:

I’m running 882 race miles in a year to represent the 882 Americans sexually assaulted every *day*. (Statistics from RAINN.) We will get into this more later, but *most importantly:

TO DONATE:
I explain in a moment why there are 3 options, but I want to give you the links first:

1) To donate to Peace Over Violence (a fantastic organization in Los Angeles), go RIGHT HERE! 🙂.
Or text AURORARUNS to 41444.

2) To donate to the Crime Victim’s Treatment Center (a wonderful place in New York City) RIGHT HERE 🙂.

3) To donate to RAINN (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network – so, as it says in the title, a national organization) go RIGHT HERE! 🙂.

*Important note: I just want to be super duper clear that not a single penny goes toward any of my expenses when it comes to running. None of your money pays for a race entry, a flight, a hotel, nothing. It all goes straight to the charities doing great work. Thanks! (So, go on and give! (Links above).)

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Now, onto why there are 3 – I am giving 3 options because I know people feel differently about whether they’d rather their money go to a big national organization or a smaller local one.

While I love and believe in RAINN, and I think important things get done at a national level, I also think that smaller local places can sometimes really feel the difference a lot more with this amount of money.

I do believe in small and local places. And as someone who lives in New York and Los Angeles, I was happy to find places on both coasts I really, really believe in.

And if you live on one of those coasts and want to see your money go into your own community, bam! Go for it.
(Or even if you don’t live there, still feel free to give to either!)

But not all of you live in New York or Los Angeles. While I believe helping a woman (or any survivor) anywhere is helping women (and other survivors) everywhere, I also could see how you wouldn’t want to put your resources in a local place where you don’t live (where you may not feel the return as much). So, I’m happy to give RAINN as an option, because they’re very helpful too!

Now let’s get more into the details of everything!

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• WHAT: What’s my new project? Well, thank you for asking! I’m running 882 miles in a year to represent the 882 American’s sexually assaulted every day. That’s right. It will take a year to represent the people sexually assaulted every day. (That’s one every 98 seconds – statistics from RAINN.)

882 miles is the equivalent of running from Los Angeles to El Paso, Texas or from New York City to Milwaukee, WI. (Or it’s running over 33 marathons or over 67 half marathons in one year… That’s an extra 15 half marathons from my last running project (or an extra 200 almost miles).

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• WHO am I raising money for? All 3 organizations are established 501(c)(3) organizations with great track records.

Peace Over Violence (Los Angeles) an organization helping victims of sexual assault and domestic violence for over 46 years. They work on prevention and on helping survivors. You can read more about what they do here.

On a personal level, When I was sexually assaulted last year, and having the hardest time dealing with it, I called a national helpline [RAINN’s] that happened to route me to Peace Over Violence because of my area code. And the volunteer there was SO helpful.

I had recently moved to New York, and being that this organization is west coast based, she didn’t have resources on hand. But she asked if it would be okay if she called me later. So, she did research and found different options of places that may be able to help me…

And she followed up with me again about a week later to make sure I went and got help. When she called me, I hadn’t yet reached out to any of those places, because, well, I was pretty depressed, and even reaching out for help felt like a lot of work. But this sweet volunteer checked in on me and made sure that I got into some good hands, and got help and got therapy and all of that.

I’ve read about experiences other women had there, and I’ve been helped personally. I really believe in Peace Over Violence, and am happy to raise money for them.

Crime Victim’s Treatment Center (New York)
This place is amazing. It’s New York based and if you know a victim of sexual assault in New York, I can wholeheartedly recommend you send them there.

They offer individual therapy, group therapy, even acupuncture. They have a psychiatrist in case you need to be evaluated for medications. Basically anything you need in your recovery, they can either help you, or they can help you find it.

I’m hesitant to talk too much about my treatment out here in New York, because I’m still going through it. But I can say that the staff at the Crime Victim’s Treatment Center is amazing, and they’re basically saving my life. I have seen firsthand the work they do, and I feel 100% confident that money going toward them is money worth donating. (And I would love to see them get tons of money!)

You can read more about everything they offer here.

RAINN (National)
RAINN was how I found out about any of this stuff in the first place. It’s the immediate place I turned when I needed help. It’s important to have one hub that can help lead you to these places you may otherwise not know about… Plus, they obviously do soooo much in addition to that. This is a famous organization, so I’m sure you probably know some about them already. But in case you don’t, check them out here.

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• WHY did I choose this running project? Well, I ran 52 half marathons in 52 weeks after open-heart surgery plus a year in-and-out of the hospital for a weird congenital heart defect. That was the way I knew how to deal with this life-altering thing that was hard for me to deal with. And now that another life-alerting hard-to-deal-with thing has happened, this is the best way I know how to deal with it… I dream of someday volunteering with survivors of sexual assault. I am not to that point yet. I am still in a therapy program. I am still triggered too often. I know that I could not be a rock solid steady volunteer that these people need… So, I can’t help one-on-one yet, but I can run for sexual assault survivors. I hope it helps others – and hopefully also helps me to feel whole and strong again! [Rargh!]

As far as I know, that covers everything. If somehow I missed something, please let me know! Write a comment, or send me an email to WriteToAurora [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Oh, yeah, and WHERE do you donate? (The links are up earlier in the post. But since we’ve gotten so far down here, let me give ’em to you again):

• 1) To donate to the Crime Victim’s Treatment Center (a wonderful place in New York City) [GO HERE ].
• 2) To donate to Peace Over Violence (a fantastic organization in Los Angeles), go RIGHT HERE! 🙂.
  Or text AURORARUNS to 41444.
• 3) To donate to RAINN (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network – so, as it says in the title, a national organization) go RIGHT HERE! 🙂.

  It would really, really mean a lot to me if you give. Every tiny bit helps. And the more money we get now, hopefully the more people will pay attention… And the more people pay attention, hopefully the more money we get! So, please give right now! [Click those links!]

And tell your friends!

(And you can follow along with progress here.) xoxoxo