Paige Rantz reporter
On Feb. 11 and 14, at the Student Overman Center, Students for Violence Prevention (SFVP) held a bake sale to support and raise money for the Safehouse Crisis Center in Pittsburg. The Safehouse Crisis Center is a safe place for women who have experienced violence, sexual assault, or stalking. This bake sale included genitalia themed treats coming in assorted sizes and colors, along with cute cookies and brownies to help raise awareness with a twist.
President of SFVP, Alexa Billingsley, a junior criminal justice and modern languages major, played a leading role in getting everything set up for this bake sale. This is the first bake sale that SFVP has done with Billingsley as the president.
“We decided that we wanted to do this because we thought it would be a really fun and interactive way to educate and get people involved. Sex is a huge part of the Valentine’s holiday, and we wanted to embrace it, as well as try to help others who have not had a great experience with this,” Billingsley said. “We’ve gotten a lot of people that have said this is really empowering, and people that think it is funny. At the end of the day, all the proceeds are going to the Safehouse and that’s really what we want.”
It took a lot of deciding whether or not this was a good theme or choice to make for the bake sale.
“We were concerned that people might be more so laughing at us than with us,” Billingsley said. “And we have faced a couple different people not loving our idea and that’s okay, obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions. We are just glad that we can help in any way we can.” SFVP wanted to make this a sex-positive, race-inclusive, empowering bake sale and taking something that can have a negative tone in a positive manner.
There were customers who came by and bought baked goods to show their support to the cause, and others because they found it funny. Christina Diab, a Junior Pre-Med major stopped by the sale.
“I really did like the idea,” Diab said. “I wanted to show my support because I thought it was a very empowering thing to do.”
Many students enjoyed the fun way they were able to help an important cause and get a treat while doing it.
“We hope that what they take away is that their body parts are not something to be ashamed of, and not being comfortable talking about them will lead to a bigger problem with sexual assault, Billingsley said. “Ultimately, we want to stop the stigma and get this out in the open because it not something to hide.”
