The Students for Violence Prevention organization (SVP) hosted their Not Your Momma’s Bake Sale in the Oval on Monday, April 20. They were selling molded chocolate and flavored gummies in the shapes of genitalia with all the proceeds going to the Safehouse Crisis Center here in Pittsburg, KS.
The event itself is meant to raise awareness of the Safehouse Crisis Center, as well as destigmatize talking about genitals. Tymaya Jones is a junior majoring in psychology and minoring in child development with an emphasis in child disabilities, and she is also the Treasurer of Students for Violence Prevention.
“We’re trying to destigmatize how people talk about it, how people view it, how people think about it, and be able to create a healthy, safe environment for people to come and be able to talk, ask questions, whatever it may be,” Jones said.
Soliana Guinto is a political science and geography major in her junior year, and said that “They have a very bold approach to it, but I think it actually creates a little bit of humor and fun around the subject… and that’s actually a really effective way to creating some sort of higher understanding of sexual and domestic violence.”
Safehouse provides shelter, advocates, counseling, support groups, education, and has a 24-hour hotline for anyone going through a sexually or domestically abusive situation. They also have a service where you can arrange child visitations through them to ensure a safe environment for parents and children to meet in a neutral location. The bake sale is meant to raise money to support this organization, educate students about some of the services they provide, and spread awareness about the dangers of sexual and domestic violence.
Sid Ruckman is the vice president of Students for Violence Prevention, as well as a sophomore studying graphic communications with an emphasis in graphic design. Ruckman was there helping to run the bake sale with a few other members including Tymaya Jones, and said, “We did not have a lot of takers, but we have gotten a couple of donations even if people didn’t take the goodies,” which still helps to support Safehouse. “Any donation, even just little ones, are still very important for us to have because I feel like a lot of people don’t know about Safehouse, or if they do, they don’t really know the logistics about it,” Ruckman said.
The bake sale table of course had goodies to sell, but there were some free hot chocolate packets, free chopsticks, stickers to represent survivors of domestic violence, general information about the club, and some information about Safehouse Crisis Center. All the while, every person who came up was informed about what Safehouse does, and what they could do to help.
The Not Your Momma’s Bake Sale has become a tradition for them every April to raise money for a good cause and continue their goal of spreading awareness during Sexual Assault Awareness month.