Niagara clothesline project raises awareness

Murray Taylor, 914th Airlift Wing contracting specialist, puts the finishing touches on a T-shirt he created as part of the Clothesline Project celebrating Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, N.Y. The project, one of several events held at the station, uses the concept of hanging shirts on a clothesline for raising awareness about the issue of personal violence. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Kevin Nichols)

Niagara clothesline project raises awareness

Published April 14, 2015
By Master Sgt. Kevin Nichols
914th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

NIAGARA FALLS AIR RESERVE STATION, N.Y. -- The 914th Airlift Wing held a Clothesline Project here April 6 to help raise awareness during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.

The Clothesline Project was one of several SAAPM events put on by Nikki Slaughter, Niagara Sexual Assault Response coordinator, to highlight the issue of personal violence.

Base personnel gathered together to create their own unique T-shirt with artwork and messages of strength, hope and solidarity.

The history of the Clothesline Project goes back to a small group of women, many of whom had experienced some form of personal violence, wanting to find a unique way to take staggering, mind-numbing statistics and turn them into a provocative, "in-your-face" educational and healing tool.

One of the women, visual artist Rachel Carey-Harper, moved by the power of the AIDS quilt, presented the concept of using shirts - hanging on a clothesline - as the means to raise awareness about this issue. The idea of using a clothesline was a natural to her. Doing the laundry was always considered women's work and in the days of close-knit neighborhoods women often exchanged information over backyard fences while hanging their clothes out to dry.

April 2015 marks the 14th observance of SAAPM. It is recognized nationally and internationally by military and civilian communities. In the late 1980s, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCASA) led an initiative to select a designated time period to promote awareness. In 2001, the teal ribbon was used as a national symbol, and in 2015, the DoD expanded the title of the month to include prevention.

The 2015 DoD SAAPM theme is "Eliminate Sexual Assault, Know Your Part, Do Your Part."