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Postings and chatroom for students in Professor Ted Pease's JCOM 1130 newswriting class, Spring 2009. Department of Journalism & Communication, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. Contact: ted.pease@usu.edu; 435-797-3293.
j.n.p@aggiemail.usu.edu
LOGAN – You may not know a man named Doug Hills but you may be seeing Hills in heels at some of your local coffee shops, such as Citrus and Sage, Starbucks and Borders, during the month of April, a nationally designated month for sexual assault awareness.
Hills, 32, originally from Upstate New York and a Logan resident since 2002, has set out to spread awareness and raise money to help prevent sexual assault and domestic violence after accepting a challenge from his wife Stacey Hills, a professor in the Business Administration Department at Utah State University.
Stacey, after receiving a faculty email announcement for the return of “Walk-a-Mile-In-Her-Shoes,” an annual event that is held in order to raise money for both the Sexual Assault & Anti-Violence Information office along with the One-in-Four Chapter, a USU all-male peer-education group devoted to educating men about rape and sexual assault, saw an opportunity for her husband to see how it feels to have to wear high-heels all day and hoped to gain “a little sympathy” from him.
“She says, ‘Well, I don’t think you’re tough enough to do it anyway,’ Hills said, “There’s always that part in a guy’s head whenever someone says, ‘Oh, you can’t do it, you’re not tough enough,’ it’s like…yes I can and I can do it better than you.”
Later, Stacey came home to find that Hills had “upped the anti” just to make a point that walking in heels is easy.
Hills said he not only would participate in the “Walk-a-Mile” event on campus, but he would also wear the high-heels an extra day for every $20 in donations he raised.
Hills agreed to let Stacey “set the rules,” which consisted of a pair of black stiletto boots along with an alternate pair of heels that he must wear during regular business hours Monday through Friday.
The Hills’ childcare providers were the first group of people to hear about his plan and word spread quickly from there to the coffee shops that Hills hangs out at regularly.
Hills’ pals at Borders put up a sign that said, “Do you want to see Doug Hills suffer in stilettos?” which resulted in $180 in funds.
“One of the girls who saw that came up to me and wanted to know what this was all about,” Hills said.
That same girl set up another donation site at a local chiropractor’s office where an additional amount of $140 was raised for SAAVI and the One-in-Four Chapter.
“I honestly did not expect this kind of a turn out,” Hills said.
“Do something silly for fundraising and you’ll always get support,” Stacey said.
Hills supposed he would get a few chuckles or maybe some $5-10 donations, “But I was getting twenties, mostly from girls with a vendetta,” Hills said.
Hills has not had any previous involvement with charity work, although his wife has, but after researching SAAVI and the other organizations surrounding it Hills decided that sexual assault awareness was a cause worth the mental challenge.
“Even if no one is looking at me, there’s that thought in the back of my head like everyone is looking at me,” Hills said.
After completing a test run a couple weeks ago in his high-heeled boots, Hills soon realized that he needed some mental support, which is one of the reasons he plans to stick to his favorite hang-outs, and so that the people who know him can help explain what his purpose is and hand out pamphlets.
“It’s going to be easier to walk around when [Stacey] is with me because by myself…I felt extremely vulnerable and naked.”
Hills related those feelings to victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence, “I’m walking a mile to understand the pain of walking in high-heels, but mentally I am understanding what it feels like to be a victim. It’s maybe a small way, but it’s that insecurity, that vulnerability,” Hills said.
Wednesday USU was covered with orange cones and men in high-heeled shoes, Hills included, to rally support for the campus organizations and for the sake of awareness.
Stacey participated in “Walk-a-Mile” as a blister sister and escorted Hills on his walk around campus.
Also there to support Hills on his walk was a family friend, Gretchen Strange, 27, a student teacher at Mt. Logan Middle School, who feels strongly about the SAAVI cause, “because I have some experience with it,” Strange said.
“You don’t think about [sexual assault] until you’re right there in the situation and it’s happening,” Strange said.
Strange sees sexual assault awareness as a community issue because she works with seventh-graders on a daily basis and has heard “through the grapevine of students who will go hang out at college parties.”
“So, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to make it just a college thing,” Strange said, “I don’t think people realize the statistics. I mean, one in four [college women have survived rape or attempted rape], that’s a lot…there’s two of us sitting right here.”
Strange said that the statistic is too high and that she wonders how much of it is due to merely a lack of awareness on the issue of sexual assault.
Some USU students and faculty agree that the SAAVI cause deserves more community-wide attention.
“This is one of those organizations where they just don’t get enough money through the regular system,” said Stacey, who is a member of the USU faculty.
“It is a good cause,” said Mike Hutchinson, a student and Pi Kappa Alpha who got involved with “Walk-a-Mile” one year ago.
Hutchinson said that he hopes to see more support for sexual assault awareness and has contributed as much as he can on his own by watching out for aggressive guys, “whether it be at a party or another function.”
“I just kind of watch the flow of things,” Hutchinson said, “If someone needs to go I’m usually standing there ready to kick him out of a party.”
“When men publicly stand up and show their commitment, their actions encourage other men to start thinking about how they personally can do their part to end violence,” said Rachel Brighton, SAAVI coordinator.
“Something like what Doug is doing is going to make [SAAVI] a lot more visible…It’ll do a lot to open doors for sure…he’s also out in the community, and so he is bringing in outside awareness,” Strange said.
Hills said that donations have “slowed to a trickle” since he announced that he does not plan to continue wearing his shoes after May 1, but he will still be accepting donations at Borders and Citrus and Sage on behalf of the USU SAAVI office and Four-in-One Chapter.
As for the “Walk-a-Mile” event itself, many students participate every year and the number of participants rises each year.
Hills hopes to get more non-student members of the Logan community involved by setting the example and spreading the information around the community.