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Wed, 10/27/2021 - 10:20 am

Wise Hope hosts candlelight vigil

Attendees of the Wise Hope Crisis Center’s candlelight vigil, held Tuesday, Oct. 19, stand in support of victims in hope of bringing awareness to domestic violence. Photo/Brian Smith
A couple of attendees during the Wise Hope Crisis Center’s event to bring awareness to domestic violence Tuesday, Oct. 19 on the Jack County courthouse steps. Photo/Brian Smith

Trying to create awareness of domestic violence, Wise Hope Crisis Center hosted a candlelight vigil on the steps of the Jack County Courthouse Tuesday, Oct. 19.

Wise Hope Executive Director, Janice Watkins, said nearly 1,000 people in Jack, Wise and Montague Counties were assisted from Sept. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2021. That is one in four women and one in seven men in those counties.

Watkins also said in Texas, 228 intimate partner homicides occurred in 2020.

“That’s 228 people that were once said ‘I love you’ to are now dead,” Watkins said.

Jack County Judge Keith Umphress read a proclamation to the 20 or so attendees declaring October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which will be signed by all the commissioners at an upcoming meeting.

“Being silent is the problem,” Umphress said.

Umphress spoke about a recent domestic violence case that ended with one of the partners committing suicide and saying in one form or fashion “domestic violence affects everyone.”

Keynote speaker “Wendy” met her husband in 2015 and said the changes started soon after they got married. The arguments, where she kept her cool which only made him angrier, got things started.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Oct. 27 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.