NKU students Stephanie Traylor, Stephanie Vines, and Heather Bolender demonstrate their beliefs by posing for the Women?s Empowerment event.

A gloomy afternoon was matched by an equally gloomy message: three women die everyday from domestic violence.

Women’s Empowerment gave a visual for NKU to see what this can look like. On Oct. 10, in the grass near the side entrance of the Fine Arts building, three demonstrators portrayed three women dying from domestic violence. The demonstrators did so by lying in a dead-like state on the ground in front of paper tombstones of women who died as victims of domestic violence.

“Three people; that’s the three of you,” WE president Kristen Johnson told three young women.

“It makes it more real when you see three people lying down,” said senior James Ernst, a member of WE.

The goal of the event was to raise awareness of the dangers of domestic violence, Johnson said.

“Some women are scared of their husbands and don’t speak up. We’re trying to raise awareness that domestic violence is not OK.”

“We want people to know that it’s ok to tell other people there are support systems to help them get out of their situation,” Johnson said.

Johnson was hoping for awareness and got results.

“A couple of women even came forward and asked for help because they were in a relationship involving domestic violence, and others collected information for their friends who were in that situation. A lot of people were shocked by the fact that three women die each day from domestic violence. All we can do is hope that the message got out, and from the looks of things, it did,” Johnson said.

Johnson hopes the demonstration will move people toward even more action.

“(People) can help out at a Women’s Empowerment event; we will be having plenty this month. They can also contact local women’s crisis and counseling centers because they take donations,” Johnson said.

Mari York, Women’s Empowerment faculty advisor said, “You can contact Women’s Empowerment through my e-mail (yorkm@nku.edu) or through the president’s e-mail (johnsonk3@nku.edu).