Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: October 21st – November 2nd

“Ah, sunny Florida.”  That was the feeling we had as we stepped off the RV and into 75-degree sunshine.  Coming off a few extended trips through Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, we were thankful we were able to enjoy such a rejuvenating temperature change.  Plus, there was no better venue for us to recharge than the “2007 National Conference on Sexual Assault in Our Schools,” which is hosted annually by the Safe Society Zone.  Members of the One in Four chapter at William and Mary regularly come to this conference to present the Men’s Program, and so we were all delighted to see some familiar Williamsburg faces.  We were also excited to see what new things were happening in the field of violence prevention.  The conference is a unique blend of fun and inspiration, in which people working in this issue can come together to share experiences and learn from each other.

We presented One in Four’s new program, “The Women’s Program,” and were very enthusiastic by the feedback we received about it.  It was a packed session, and people with many different perspectives gave us written feedback; some even stayed late to speak with us afterwards.  We received many great ideas that we will incorporate into the program, if they haven’t been already.  A special thanks goes out to our friends from Catharsis Productions that took extra time to share their insights with us - - you all rock!

Following the final panel session, we said our goodbyes to the W&M One in Four chapter members and then made a beeline for the campus of Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster, PA.  Here we trained a group of about 20 students – which seemed to have been drawn from every corner of campus – to form the newest chapter of One in Four.  We worked hard over the two-day training, and we left with a very good feeling about these guys.  Not only were they the largest group we’ve trained this year, but they were also the most diverse: there were student athletes, fraternity members, international students, and numerous other campus organizations are represented in their chapter.  Best of all, each guys’ passion really showed.  We shared a lot of laughs, and we look forward to hearing good things from them soon.

After we left Franklin and Marshall, the RV was again quickly on the move, this time to Denison University in Granville, Ohio.  Here we worked with one of the first established Women’s Studies programs in the country, who had us speak with classes of students and give one presentation specifically to athletes.  It was especially fun to speak to the Women’s Studies classes because they were in the middle of covering topics such as “feminist activism” or “violence against women,” so they were able to ask us pointed questions about the content of our presentations.  The candid Q&A with the students in Prof. Toni King’s class was awesome (Thanks, Toni!).  Denison was also one of the most beautiful campuses we’ve seen yet; the combination of the hilly landscape and the Ohio fall foliage made for some breathtaking views.

From DU, we trekked way up north again to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  We gave several presentations that day, which was a Friday, and were surprised to see that our presentation room was packed with students before our 8 A.M. presentation started.  Even more surprising was that our 5 P.M. program also had a strong showing.  How Wisconsin was able to motivate students to attend anything at 5 P.M. on a Friday, we’ll never know; but when some of these students openly shared that they have been supporting survivors in their lives and wanted to learn more about how to help them, it made us energized to know that we were able make a difference for them.

Needless to say, we’ve been hitting the road pretty hard over the month of October and into the month of November.  Two cool milestones to consider: we’ve made 22 stops so far at universities, colleges, one military base, and one national conference.  We’ve also seen every state east of the Mississippi River save for Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island.  Soon we’ll post the actual number of presentations we’ve given, and the number of people we’ve reached thus far.  Stay tuned for our next post about our day in the West Point Military Academy!

From Minnesota to - Texas??

Hello, everyone!  The RV Tour has - as always - been taking us through large stretches of the country, and we're excited to tell you all about it. 

After we left Lewis University in Illinois, the tour made its way up to University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Imagine our amazement as we drove on to campus and noticed that a great percentage of the population rode around on scooters! Yes, motorized scooters: not bikes or skateboards (as Jor-El was used to when he went to school in Wilmington, NC).  It seems that scooters are a hot commodity in Madison.  We all drooled over this lost opportunity in our undergraduate careers.

We met with our contact Ryan, who is a hall director in the amazing new residence hall at UW in which we presented.  The majority of our presentations took place in this building's lounge area, which turned out to be a huge room with about 150 chairs in the room (not to mention a few big screen TVs nestled in the back of the room).  After spending some time getting some tech issues under control, we presented to a group of faculty and staff, and then to some student leaders.  It was great for us to have very engaged audiences in both settings.  We also presented our new Women's Program to a great audience of female students, who seemed very impressed by the program’s basis in research.

Later in the evening, after a somewhat long day, we had one final presentation across campus for The Men's Program.  This session was specifically designed for male resident students.  We were a little shocked upon entering the room when we only noticed one guy sitting there waiting, but we were informed a few minutes later that another safety presentation was going on downstairs in the same building.  So even though we had a small audience (which we like, as it makes for a more engaging dialogue), we still gave the same effort that we would as if we were speaking to a room full of people. It was a great thing we did.  After the presentation, 6 of the guys in attendance - nearly the entire audience - spoke with us about starting a chapter at UW Madison. What a great way to end a day!  It is always amazing to see how many new men are stepping up to make a difference in this cause.

Our next stop was in Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.  We had been brought to campus by the wonderful Kaaren, who works for the Gender and Sexuality Center. We were pretty amazed by the approach that the center takes.  Rather than just focusing on violence prevention, this office holistically incorporates all kinds of issues and topics relating to gender issues, including men's health, women's health, sexuality, sexual assault and violence prevention.  It was great to see a center that integrated all these topics!

Upon arriving on Saturday night, we had the opportunity to meet with our student contact, Leahruth, who was gracious enough to provide us with goodie bags (AWESOME!) and show us to our accommodations in their alumni house (which were incredibly comfortable).  Over the course of our time at Carleton we got to see a drag show on campus (definitely a new experience for us), present in a wonderful hall, and train a very intelligent group of young men -- who have now formed our newest One in Four chapter. Congratulations, guys!

After our lovely stint at Carleton (we miss you, Northfield!) we were set up to make what has been the most challenging drive of the trip so far.  After our late presentation at Carleton on Tuesday evening, we immediately had to start heading our way to Corpus Christi, Texas (where we were to present on Thursday).  After making some strategic rest and driving plans, we made the 27 hour trip and arrived in Corpus Christi safe and sound early Thursday morning.  

Not to let an opportunity go wasted, just before going to bed, JT and Dan decided to hop over to the beach (which was a short walk away from where the RV was parked) to dip their feet into the Gulf of Mexico. It was an exhilarating capstone to an incredible drive across the country -- it was just unfortunate that they didn’t see that the water was filled with tiny jellyfish until it was too late.

Luckily, our scheduled presentation at A&M was in the late afternoon, and when we arrived we were amazed to see the beautiful space we were presenting in.  This room was a performance hall, and was part of their Performing Arts Center. It was easily the most breathtaking place we’ve ever presented in, and we all commented on how we wish we could take the room with us wherever we went.

After our presentation at Corpus Christi, we were psyched to head to our next stop in Orlando, FL, where we would get the chance to meet up with Adam, our Executive Director, Dr. Foubert, One in Four's Founder and some of William and Mary’s One in Four chapter members at the Safe Society Zone conference.  We were all excited to spend a few days in a beautiful place and reconnect with some great friends.

RV Tour Visits Ohio, Ilinois

Hello, everyone!

As October comes to a close, we're coming near the end of one of the most packed months of scheduling in One in Four's history.  RV Tour 4 has been literally moving all over the country to make this month happen, and we've certainly been having our share of adventures! 

After University at Buffalo we headed to University of Dayton, where we spent a few days training a new chapter of One in Four and presenting to their Greek life.  Over two days at Dayton, we trained a great group of guys and also had a strong showing of support from female student activists.  Everyone came together to learn more about the issue and to help plan how the new chapter at Dayton was going to make a difference.  It was awesome to work with such excited students!

Yet, no trip would be complete without a little RV fun.  On the night before we left Dayton, our generator became a little fussy and it eventually stopped working.  Ordinarily, this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but we needed some serious electrical power to get the RV back into driving form and we didn't have any time to spare - - we needed to be in Romeoville, IL to present at Lewis University early the next morning.

After tinkering with it for a while, we decided it was going to take some creative problem solving and soon contacted the Dayton Police.  We tossed around all kinds of ideas, but in the end we ran about 50 feet of heavy-duty extension cords from a nearby building, and transformed Cassie from home back into car.  From here, we were able to drive through the night (with a stop in our favorite White Castle in Gary, Indiana), drop off the RV to be serviced, pick up a car from Dan's very generous parents, and make it to Lewis on schedule the following morning.  Surely, it was one for the record books. 

At Lewis we had great audiences for all of our presentations over the next two days.  We spoke to faculty/staff, first year students, male athletes, and we were able to present the Women's Program to nearly all of Lewis' female athletes.  Our contact Teresa took excellent care of us (offering us wonderful food, which we always appreciate) and Dr. Mellman, the director of the Lewis Counseling Center, continually thanked us for our efforts. 

It's needless to say that our schedule has been pressing and that keeping the pace has been a fun and challenging experience for all four of us.  But without a doubt we've been humbled and inspired by the people we've met at every step of the way.  Whether it's leaving a new chapter of men who are now excited to take a stand against sexual violence, or having a survivor approach us after a presentation, we know that there is no other job in the world that we'd rather be working. 

Check back for our next post, in which we discuss: a presentation at University of Wisconsin-Madison in which 6 men approached us afterward, adamant about forming their own One in Four chapter - and a drive that began in chilly Minnesota and ended with us dipping our feet into the Gulf of Mexico.  Stay tuned! 

One in Four Stops at University at Buffalo, New York

Hello friends of One in Four!

It's been a long time since we've posted a blog entry, but we hope that you'll forgive us: we've been very busy tackling a very busy fall schedule, and we've wanted to make sure that we can offer the schools we visit as much energy as they need from us. Now that we're a bit more comfortable with life on the road, though, we're going to make an effort to post on this blog much more regularly than we have so far - so be sure to check in often!

The RV Tour just finished up a two day stint at University at Buffalo in New York, and the people at the UB Wellness Center took incredible care of us - they put us up in a hotel and gave us food, as well as official University hats, T-shirts, USB drives, and miniature basketballs and footballs.  They even arranged for each of us to receive a short, between-presentations massage from Shelly, the University Wellness Center's resident massage therapist.  Also, on our second evening the folks at the Wellness Center treated us to the best pizza and wings you can get in Buffalo, for which Buffalo is well-known for.  We certainly didn't argue with this treatment - especially since it came on the heels of days of rough driving from Pennsylvania, out to Tennessee, and then back to New York!

To be fair, though, UB did have us present 5 times a day each day we were there - which we've grown very accustomed to - but the tender love and care UB offered us definitely made our time there very enjoyable.

We also received a lot of gratitude from several people who saw our presentations at UB.  The Chief of Police was at our first seminar, and afterward he offered to help us line up a presentation at the convention held for all police trainers within the state of New York. On our second day, after the director of Residence Halls at UB saw one of our presentations, she returned to her office and informed all of her res directors to drop what they were doing and attend the next afternoon session. 

It was absolutely humbling to be offered this kind of help from those with the power to make a huge difference at UB.  Hearing from them validated the difference that we're making on this journey - and it makes those 5-presentation days (as well as the free food and massages) especially worthwhile.

Right now we're on our way to Dayton, Ohio, and after that we'll be heading to Lewis University in Illinois.  We'll be sure to post again soon!

The One in Four National SUV Tour Begins...

Imagine that you're behind the wheel of your enormous, 37 foot steel home, hurtling down the highway toward your destination, when suddenly you find that pressing on the gas pedal suddenly doesn't seem to really do anything anymore. Most of us have been driving along in a car before and have had it break down - that can be frustrating. But when the accelerator of the RV broke down on Friday night, leaving us stranded in a Walmart parking lot in Wauseon, Ohio, we understood for the first time that when desperate times call for us give up our "car" to be repaired, we have to give up our "home," too. We spent all of Saturday locating an RV servicer that would be able to service our specific type of RV (service would have to wait until Tuesday, because the RV broke down at the beginning of Labor Day weekend). We also had the RV towed across Ohio to the service station by a special towing service that could handle moving our massive automobile.

Thus began a new phase for us, a time we jokingly call the "One in Four National SUV Tour," which lasted for the next two weeks. We've rented an SUV, and have been driving around in it for the past few days, and will continue to until after our stops in New Orleans and Alabama.  Adjusting to actually living out of a car was rough at first - there are a lot of aspects of traveling that are really nice that we gave up by being in an SUV (like the ability to go to the bathroom without stopping every time one of the four of us has to go!), but it really wasn't that bad. It's definitely pushed the level of our adventure to a new limit - it was kind of like taking a road trip from our road trip - and we all appreciated our RV home all the more when we were reunited with her after a few weeks!

After driving through the night in our newly rented SUV, we arrived at Siena College in New York around 8AM, and slept for a bit before our contact person there let us into the showers at Siena's workout facilities, followed by a trip to the dining hall for a bit of all-you-can-eat breakfast.  We enjoyed the food, but at that point the excitement of the adventuresome aspects to everything that had happened gave way to the utter tiredness we were all feeling.  Fortunately, our contact person at Siena was sympathetic, and arranged for a hotel room for us - so we went back and slept for the whole afternoon, emerging when it was time to prepare for our evening presentations.

There were over 300 students in our first workshop, and about 170 students in the second, which means that we had a big stage and a nice sound system at our disposal to help us project throughout the large room.  A few of us - Dan in particular - has found presenting to large groups particularly fun. When we're talking in a big room to a large audience, there's a part of us that has to step up and communicate in a "bigger" way, and we've found that a fun challenge to step up to.  These audiences were freshman students having their orientation, and included more female students than male ones - which presented an added challenge for us, as we had to think on the fly about how to best cater our presentation to these students while maintaining the "all-male" focus of the Men's Program.  All in all it went well - Siena was definitely a good stop on our tour.

Stay tuned for updates on how the tour has gone at Washington College in Maryland, Tulane University in New Orleans, and University of South Alabama. We'll be updating again shortly!

RV Tour 4 stops at Baldwin-Wallace College and Fort McCoy

Hello friends and family of One in Four!

RV tour 4 has been on the road for almost two weeks, and everything has been going well. In the short time that the four of us - JT, James, Jor-El, and Dan - have been on the road, we've had enough adventures, met enough interesting people, and responded to so many new challenges that it feels like we've been on the road for months. Here's what's been happening for us so far:

The RV tour started with two great days of presenting - - one at Baldwin-Wallace and one at Ft. McCoy. B-W was a great place to start our journey because they have had the Tour a couple of times in the past, so they are familiar with who we are and what we need in order to present. The school is not too far outside of Cleveland, and Google Maps told us it was about 8.5 hours away from Williamsburg. It took us roughly 16 hours, thanks to some traffic, a wrong turn or two, and our adjustments to travelling in an RV rather than by car. We landed in a B-W parking lot at about 4 a.m., but were up and, thanks to our gracious contact there, had our tummies full of Burger King before noon. The presentation was to an audience of about 350 male freshman students. Although we all were a bit nervous going into it, all four of us stepped up and delivered a great presentation - James was even able to, with his usual grace and style, tactfully address the disarming comments that a few members of the audience threw at us. Our contacts at B-W were impressed with the presentation, and told us that we had met the standard that was set by RV tours in years past - which was definitely awesome feedback for us to get on Day 1!

We then hightailed it over to the Chicago area, where Dan lived with his parents this summer. We were all excited to find real beds and a shower before we left for the middle of Wisconsin. We found traveling across the Midwest to be much, much easier than our trek along the East coast had been. So we made it to a campground on the Fort McCoy military base in Wisconsin with plenty of time to get a good night's rest. We definitely needed it for the next day...

A bullhorn blasted across our campgrounds at 5:45AM. It was time for the soldiers stationed at Fort McCoy to start their day, and consequently, for us to start ours too. For the first time, we were presented with one of the challenges of living out of essentially a mobile house: we needed to shower before our presentation, and while the camping showers were located only a short walk away, a short look out the window told us that nature was deciding to have a small downpour itself. So we threw on our shower slippers, jackets, and ponchos, and trekked to the showers.

Once clean, we headed over to where we would present 6 times over the course of the day, to groups ranging between about 10 and 25 soldiers (about 7:30am to 7:30pm). It was intimidating for all of us to speak to these military audiences at first because they're so different than our usual college groups: as you can imagine, it tends to be slightly more comfortable to present to audiences who aren't comprised of soldiers that carry weaponry. Even though we set a new personal RV Tour record for most presentations ever given in one day (6), we all felt that our day at Fort McCoy was a tremendously positive experience. Our soldiers were overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic, and we could very clearly see the change we made there. If nothing else, Fort McCoy helped us prepare for our upcoming stop at West Point, in which we're presenting to an audience of 900 future military commanders.

After leaving Fort McCoy we returned to the Chicago area for a few nights off, which really helped us to ease our transition to life on the road. We met a Tour 1 member, Will Carter, for some Chicago-style deep dish at the original Pizzaria Uno in downtown Chicago, and James, JT, and Jor-El showed some real "skill" at a karaoke bar in Dan's hometown (Dan decided to save his singing chops for another time).

Warm, fed, showered, and stocked up with supplies thanks to a generous and charitable trip to Costco funded by a donation from Dan's parents, we left the Chicago area (with a quick stop at Portillo's, Dan's favorite restaurant ever) to head to Siena College in New York. We had no idea that we were about to encounter the biggest challenge of our tour so far.

RV Tour 4 stops at Baldwin-Wallace College and Fort McCoy