Butterflies to Honor Wilton’s Victims of Domestic Violence

Teen PeaceWorks Member Kaitlin McNamara and her sisters, Macaire and Lauren selling tickets for the Wilton Domestic Violence Task Force’s “Wings of Hope” Campaign Butterfly Release. 

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, The Wilton Domestic Violence Task Force will be hosting a “Wings of Hope Campaign.” This year they are holding a Butterfly Release to honor Wilton’s victims of Domestic Violence.

“The butterflies represent healing–in mind, body and spirit, a renewed life and hope for a better future,” said Jennifer McNamara, president of the Domestic Violence Task Force. “When considering the tragedies that happened in our town and other close towns last year, it seemed very fitting that this year we marked October (DV Awareness Month) with peaceful remembrance and hope for tomorrow.”

The task force is asking people to sponsor a butterfly with a $20 donation. The butterflies will arrive  boxed in a dormant state.  As we gather as a community at  Town Center  the Butterflies will be passed out to sponsors and released simultaneously.  The Butterflies will flutter around town before they answer to their  migration instincts and take flight to Mexico for the winter.

Proceeds from the butterfly sponsorships will benefit the Domestic Violence Crisis Center, which provides free services to seven towns, including Wilton.

The Wilton Task Force will be selling tickets on Monday, Sept. 23 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside of Open House Gift Shop at 9 Center Street, in Wilton Town Center.

The butterflies will be released scheduled on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 1:30 p.m. at the Gazebo on the Town Green. Afterwards members of the Task Force along with members of Teen PeaceWorks–the WHS Club for dating violence awareness–will hang 96 purple ribbons which represent the number of domestic violence incidents reported in Wilton during the past year.

According to the Task Force’s McNamara, that number is down slightly from the year before, which saw 105 domestic violence incidents reported. But, she reminded, those are only the incidents that are reported and known.

For more information on the event, please contact Jennifer McNamara at jemcnamara@optonline.net.