Purple pumpkin program raise awareness of domestic abuse

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Among several other designations, the month of October is also Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, and Crisis Intervention Service wants to spread the word with purple pumpkins.

From Oct. 3 to 31, purple pumpkins will be able to be found around Charles City to show that domestic violence can be found everywhere.

Students from the Mason City High School painted the pumpkins for Emily Propst, the Crisis Intervention Service domestic abuse advocate for Floyd, Mitchell and Worth counties.

“We’ve added a tag with an explanation of what the event is and what to do with it,” Propst said about the purple pumpkins. “We’ve hidden them around town.”

The Crisis Intervention Service encourages people to take a picture of themselves with any purple pumpkin they find and post the photo on the Purple Pumpkin Project II Facebook page with the hashtag #purplepumpkins2, or bring them to the County Attorney’s Office in Charles City.

The Crisis Intervention Services will announce weekly prizes throughout October, and a grand prize will be announced Nov. 1.

So far one pumpkin has been returned for a prize, Propst said.

“We’ve had like five people find them so far, and we started Monday,” Propst said.

Crisis Intervention Services offers counseling for victims of abuse. From July 2016 to June 2017, 391 people have come to Propst’s office for appointments about domestic abuse, she said.

That’s a larger number than Propst has had come in years past, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, she said.

“A lot of people don’t come forward,” Propst said. “Statistically they say about 25 percent of assaults are reported to the police, so there’s a lot of that going on that nobody knows about.

“People coming forward for help means that the system is working for them, and they feel comfortable doing so,” she said. “They’re aware that there are services available for them that they can use.”

Domestic abuse can be embarrassing and difficult to talk about, Propst said.

“When you’re in this situation it’s hard to imagine there might be help available, or just the list of things that you have to do to get out this situation seems too overwhelming to try,” she said.

Most of the people that come to Propst had no idea that her services were available or that they had possible assistance, she said.

“Just that people are coming forward means that the system is working,” Propst said. “You have law enforcement and a county attorney here that are very interested in holding people accountable.”

When someone reports something and the system works for them, then they’re going to tell others to call for help, Propst said.

Probst asked anyone who has been or knows someone who has been a victim of domestic violence or abuse to contact her at 641-228-0015, or call the 24-hour domestic abuse hotline at 855-424-9133.