COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – After needing to cancel their traditional Walk A Mile In Their Shoes event in late April, the Branch County Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence reworked the event and was able to raise almost $45,000 for their organization Saturday.
The 10th annual event was supposed to feature men wearing high heels walking one mile from the Coach Eby Youth and Family Center to the Four Corners Park and back, along with other activities, including a 5K run April 25. Instead, men and women walked a small track Saturday set up in the parking lot next to Southern Michigan bank and Trust on Pearl Street.
A Treasure Hunt was set up at 12 sponsor locations on U.S. 12 from Bronson to Quincy, and a pork barbeque lunch was served at the Coach Eby Center.
Preliminary numbers show the events Saturday raised $44,946. That included $11,150.61 raised by Executive Director Kim Hemker, in a challenge to get her to wear a pair of seven inch stilleto high heals while walking the track Saturday.
Hemker says the overall money raised is down from last year, and they will need to make up those funds, but she feels confident the community will pull together to assist domestic and sexual violence survivors.
