Silent Walk For Domestic Abuse Awareness
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Siuslaw Outreach Services will be starting their awareness efforts a little early. Bob Teter says their annual march against Domestic violence will be this Sunday. Gathering at Veteran’s Memorial Park on the West end of bay street will begin at 12:45.
“We will have ribbons to hand out for people to wear, plus giant ribbon signs for people to carry. We’ll walk down the right side of Bay Street to the Boardwalk where we will circle up.”
That’s where Teter will speak about domestic violence and a D-V survivor will be asked to share their story. Speaking publicly about it can be traumatic, so sometimes their scheduled speaker will back out. But that’s ok, he says. Either way, the march has always led to the same result.
“What has happened every single year we’ve held this event someone has come up to us and said I didn’t know you guys were available, I didn’t know there was this resource. I’m experiencing domestic violence.”
Teter says the S.O.S office is available weekdays from ten until 3 on 12th street.
“Or we have a 24-hour crisis line for people to reach out and that number is 541-997-4444.”
Wearing a purple ribbon, or attaching one to your car, can be a great way, he says, to show your support for standing up against Domestic Violence.
Free COVID Tests
The Federal government says the latest covid-19 shots are available and that is one of the reasons they have opened up the website for free covid tests for households. Another reason is that the tests you may already have are expired or soon going to. You can get 4 free tests per household by going to covidtests.gov. according to information on the website, holiday visits can be a time for the virus to spread and with the onset of flu and respiratory virus season, they want households to be prepared in case.
Ear, Nose and Throat Services
Peace Harbor Medical Center has a new office in Florence. They have added services of Ear, Nose and Throat to services that previously sent more than 200 patients to Eugene. Hospital officials say these new services will help remove barriers to care by limiting travel to out of town appointments and better accessibility to care. To learn more about scheduling you can call the hospital at 458-205-6500. The hospital hopes to also add pediatric ENT services by December.
Festival of Books
The much-anticipated Florence Festival of Books will happen tomorrow at the Florence Events Center. Organizers say the event will be filled with information from authors and publishers and will include workshops on writing, a panel discussion and the Keynote speaker Dr. Scott Donaldson. The event will be from 9:30 until 5:30 and has several admission prices. It is 2.00 to visit with the writers and mingle, $5.00 gets you into the speakers and the hall and $10 will include all of the workshops.