Silent Witness Project to hold Unveiling Ceremony

BOWLING GREEN, O.— The Northwest Ohio Silent Witness Project’s Unveiling Ceremony, which was to be held at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo in Perrysburg on Oct. 8, has been moved to Dayspring Church, 17360 Dixie Hwy. (Ohio 25) in Bowling Green. The change was necessitated by a fire at the center this weekend.

All other details remain the same: the event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 8 and is free and open to the public.

Brenda Clubine had to endure multiple bruises and broken bones at the hands of her husband. As a result, she spent 26 years in a California state prison for second-degree murder when she ended up killing her abusive mate.  

While in prison, Clubine established Convicted Women Against Abuse, a support group created to spotlight battered women in prison. She was featured in the award-winning documentary “Sin by Silence” and now travels the country speaking out against domestic abuse.

Clubine will be the keynote speaker at the event, which is sponsored by the Bowling Green State University Women’s Center along with 32 businesses and organizations in the Bowling Green, Wood County and northwest Ohio community.

The Silent Witness Project is a nationwide initiative to remember girls and women who have been killed by husbands, ex-husbands, partners or stalkers. The project began in 1990 in Minnesota and has made it to all 50 states. The BGSU Women’s Center founded the northwest Ohio chapter in 2001.

The annual unveiling ceremony is held in October to honor Domestic Violence Awareness Month. During the ceremony, 62 northwest Ohio women killed in the last decade will be represented by individual, life-sized wooden silhouettes. The silhouettes  will be unveiled one by one as a reader recounts the name and story of each woman.

Ten of the 62 silhouettes represent victims who have been killed in the last year; in all, the victims range from girls in their teens to women in their 80s.  

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(Posted October 01, 2012 )