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Men circle Cook Field wearing high heels for philanthropy

Mary Kate Linehan

Miami University women can be seen tottering uptown every weekend in three-inch stilettos, but Miami males gathered Friday afternoon at Cook Field to give it a try.

Miami University's student organizations Women Against Violence and Sexual Assault (WAVES) and Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS), along with Butler County Rape Crisis Program, Miami University Police Department and the Phi Epsilon Kappa fraternity held a philanthropic event "Walk a Mile in Her Shoes."

"Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is a nationwide event, especially during April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month," said Nicole Hall, the lead coordinator of WAVES. "These events are going on in a bunch of different places, all across the country. So we brought it here."

Hall said she began organizing the event in September.

"We began talking about how we could collaborate and pull our resources in this economy, so we started conversations and got this all together, the interest has been overwhelming, it's been great," Hall said.

According to Hall, more than 70 men showed up to wear high heels and walk two laps around Cook Field, as well as participate in a dash starting at Pulley Tower following the march.

The walk featured the band Toys on the Top Shelf and the female a cappella group the Misfitz who provided music for all those involved with the event.

Senior Lauren Hovis, member of WAVES, said the campus organizations had to ask for funding from Associated Student Government and send letters to affiliated organizations such as SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners) of Butler County.

The high heels worn by the men who participated in the march were provided to them as they registered to walk.

"We had some issues trying to find the shoes, we tried asking for donations, but we ended up getting them at thrift stores mainly because they are lower priced, and some of the shoes were from Wal-Mart," Hovis said.

The event was very well organized and featured snacks for those who participated in the walk, a poster-making booth where bystanders could create posters in support of the men walking around Cook Field and T-shirts promoting the sponsors of the event.

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"Being our first event, we thought, this is going to be something where people volunteer so that they get to see what it is like, and then maybe next year as it grows more, having more competitions and maybe a fundraiser," Hall said.

Hovis said that WAVES hopes to not only spread awareness of sexual assault but to volunteer and advocate for survivors and victims.

"We want people to not be bystanders and to take a stand for women's values," Hovis said. "Also our hope is that for anyone who knows a survivor or who might be a survivor, this visible display is that there are services available to help you heal and that you are not alone."

By registering in the march, the men who walked around Cook Field showed how much they really did care about the seriousness of sexual assault.

"Domestic abuse and rape and women's rights are something definitely that we stand for," said first-year Doug Chiki, a member of Phi Epsilon Kappa.

Chiki said he enjoyed the message of the event as well as the creative idea behind it.

"It's a really unique event, because there's a lot of marches where it's just all women, but I think this kind of puts an interesting twist on it," Chiki said. "Putting men in high heels. I like it. It's cool."