Shoreline resident Arthur Peach, 27, said his older sister, Marisa, was someone he could confide in. They could pick each other up.
When she was murdered two years ago by her fiancée in their Pennsylvania home, Arthur said the loss was like “losing one of your best friends.”
“She had a special way of talking to you that could bring the best out of everyone she met,” Peach said.
Unfortunately Marisa met someone who did not have good inside him.
“Some people don’t want help,” Peach said.
Marisa would have been 35.
Less than six months after Marisa’s death in January 2007, Peach and his sister’s friend, Karen Martin, formed Steps Against Domestic Violence. The pair are raising awareness about domestic violence and raising money on both coasts.
Since forming, the pair has collected approximately $31,500, which they donated to agencies that help domestic violence survivors.
“We want to bring light to how much these agencies do help out,” Peach said. “People need to know it’s out there.”
Peach hosted the second West Coast Walkathon earlier this month at Green Lake in Seattle. October is Domestic Violence awareness month. More than 200 people participated, walking a three-mile lap around the lake.
People donated more than $4,500, which went to New Beginnings, an agency that offers counseling, advocacy and shelters for battered women. The agency serves people in Seattle and Shoreline.
“I have friends that use their services,” Peach said. “It made sense to give back there.”
Peach said the awareness walks are for anyone who has experienced domestic violence, witnessed it or otherwise been impacted.
“I don’t think there’s anyone that has never been impacted or seen it,” he said.
Martin, who lives in Pennsylvania, organized the group’s first walk in that state. The walk took place in June 2007, less than six months after Marisa Peach’s murder and during the murder trial. Approximately 300 people showed up at the inaugural event, which raised $15,000.
Peach said society has paid more attention to this social issue within the last 30 years, but “it still needs to be brought to the forefront.”
“It has gotten a lot better,” he said. “But we can do a better job.”
In 2006, approximately 233,000 women in the United States were raped or sexually assaulted, an average of more than 600 women per day, according to the National Organization for Women. In 2005, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner, an average of three women per day. Yet many women in the midst of abuse do not reach out for help.
Help can come as a bus ticket to get away from an abuser, Peach said.
“There are little things that make a huge impact,” he said. “It takes a lot of courage to leave a situation.”
Domestic violence rates tend to spike when people are in stressful financial situations, he said. “It’s a grim time right now,” he said, alluding to the recession.
In his sister’s case, the police helped and a restraining order was placed on Marisa’s fiancée, Peach said.
“She feared for her life at the end,” he said. “It was something she didn’t tell us.”
Another component of raising awareness is teaching people how to cope after finding out a friend or relative is in an abusive relationship, Peach said. He said people should not ignore it or accept the behavior as normal. “That’s being irresponsible.”
People need to learn at a younger age how to identify abuse and to realize that it is not acceptable, Peach added.
“It’s still a taboo subject,” he said.
There are a lot of services out there for people in abusive relationships, including agencies, food banks and shelters.
Peach and Martin plan to continue raising awareness through walks and collecting donations — and keep growing.
“You’ll never see the results,” he said. “You have to have faith in what you’re doing.”
For more information about Steps Against Domestic Violence, visit wwww.stepsagainstdomesticviolence.com.
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