- Berkshire District Attorney's Office
Pittsfield — The Berkshire Sexual and Domestic Violence Task Force’s “One Book, One Community” project raised more than $2,000 for the Elizabeth Freeman Center.
The Bookloft in Great Barrington donated a portion of all of its sales in October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, The Bookstore in Lenox donated a portion of the proceeds from sales of the book ‘No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us’ by Rachel Louise Snyder, and the Williams College Bookstore offered a “round up” promotion.
Williams College and the Bookstore in Lenox are extending its promotions until February when Snyder will be speaking at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield.
Snyder’s speaking event on Feb. 6 is free and open to the public thanks to generous community donations totaling more than $20,000.
Donors include Greylock Federal Credit Union, Williams College, Berkshire Health Systems, The Berkshire Eagle, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Berkshire Community College. The Colonial Theater, Hotel on North, and A-List Luxury Car Service are providing in-kind donations.
The event will count as professional development credits for educators, health care workers, and first responders.
The project was launched in October as a public awareness campaign around issues of domestic and sexual violence. More than 30 community groups are reading the book and holding discussions about it with members of the Berkshire Sexual and Domestic Violence Task Force, and staff from the Elizabeth Freeman Center and Berkshire District Attorney’s Office.
Greylock Federal Credit Union donated 100 books to give to community members, URJ Eisner Crane Lake Camp donated 50, and the Superintendents Roundtable purchased one for every county high school.
The Berkshire Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force formed earlier this year under the auspices of the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office.
The task force is comprised of experts in various related fields – from health care to police to schools to government – representing the entire geographic span of Berkshire County focused on ending domestic and sexual violence in the Berkshires.
