AXO Safety Awareness Workshop

Ever since Elementary School, society has been pounding into our heads the ideas of "Stranger Danger", and don't ever take candy from someone you don't know. I remember my mom would go through literally all of my Halloween candy piece by piece before I ate it to make sure that it hadn't been tampered with. However, even though it seems like all we've been taught since we're little is to be aware of our surroundings, I feel like it is all too easy to forget. Sophomore Amanda Meyer realized this, and she decided to educate our chapter on the importance of being aware of the dangers that lurk in the community. Read all about the amazing workshop she and a junior, Kelsey Wiser, put on for the members of Alpha Chi Omega.

AXO Kitchen filled
with gift bags!

We all receive those emails entitled “CRIME ALERT” telling us about the sexual assaults on campus. Some of us read them, some of us forward to our parents, and others delete them without reading those important words. These aren’t being sent out to make us so scared we won’t walk alone at night, but instead to make us inspired to somehow fix the problem and make our campus safer. As a freshman, I decided I needed to do something to help change the lack of confidence women have about walking on/around campus at night. I joined the Sexual Wellness Committee, which was a group of sorority women who were trying to do the same things I wanted to do. As a committee, we got the Fraternity and Sorority Life (an absent group at the rally in years past) to support the annual Take Back the Night march on campus.

Party favors!

This year the committee dissolved and we all went our separate ways. However, this didn’t mean that I was done with the work we had begun. Together with Kelsey Wiser, during fall term, we created a Sexual Wellness Workshop mostly aimed at the new pledge class. Our goal was to inform them on how to be safe and aware of the things that go on during the first 9 weeks of school or the “Red Zone”. The “Red Zone” is when most of the sexual assaults and rapes happen on a college campus. We had Peer Health from the University of Oregon Health Center come do a presentation and followed up with anonymous questions and comments.

Fun shaped cookies and
 some special teats!

The reason I decided to get involved was because I saw there was a problem and I wanted to fix it. It is because I don’t want to see my sorority sisters get hurt at a party, walking home from the library, etc. I want them to be safe and educated because if those things do happen, I want them to know how to handle it and not ignore it like so many women do.

I was fortunate enough to attend this workshop, and I learned so much in those two hours. There are resources on campus, like peer counseling, that I had never heard about, and I even learned from the question and answer period about a lot of issues that what I used to think were just scary stories are actually real challenges for some of the women in my chapter. This workshop was informative, yet entertaining with the silly gift bags and PG-13 cookies. I am so glad that Amanda and Kelsey took the initiative to educate our chapter on keeping ourselves protected, and I look forward to seeing what they bring to our house in the future!

LITB,

Chrissy Hardesty