One in Four RV Tour visits Sheppard Air Force Base

Hello, everyone!

We just wrapped up one of the biggest stops of the entire tour -- a string of presentations at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

We got up bright and early around 6 A.M. to prepare for the three presentations we were to give that morning, to audiences of 800, 800, and 600 airmen respectively. We love having the opportunity to reach out to so many people at once -- and being a military stop, it was particularly mesmerizing to stand up on stage and look out at so many people sitting at attention in uniform (we’ve uploaded some pictures that were taken during the presentations, in case you’d like to see for yourself!).

We were happy to see that our presentations were well received, and after each one was over airmen would approach us to shake our hands and to ask us additional questions. After one presentation a few airmen came to us and told us about how they had realized from seeing the Men’s Program that they had responded to survivors in their lives in ways that were harmful to them. We were able to offer them advice as to how they could patch things up with these loved ones, and offer themselves as helpers again. It’s moments like these that make us feel satisfied about the work we’re doing, and help us see the change we’re making on this tour.

We’re about to start on our final leg of the tour, which will take us north to Illinois Institute of Technology, to a Native American reservation in Wisconsin, and then finally out east to Fort Drum in New York. We’ve been enjoying ourselves on the RV, and we’re sad to see that the tour is coming to an end so soon -- but we’ll be happy to pass on the torch to next years guys (congratulations, Tour 5!) when the time comes.

As our trip comes to a close, the four of us -- J.T., Jor-El, James, and Dan -- wish to send a very special thank you to everyone who has supported One in Four and the RV tour. We couldn’t do what we do without your help, and you are just as much a part of the solution to end rape as we are. Thank you.

One in Four RV Tour heads to Oregon, Washington

Hello from the road!

The RV tour just left Washington state, and we’re now driving south on Interstate 5 on the way to sunny Orange County in California.  We’ve had quite an experience on this trip out west, driving through places and areas of the country that none of us have ever seen before.  We drove through Kansas, which was so flat and empty that we could literally see landmarks that were miles away; through the beautiful rocky mountains of Colorado and Utah, and into the deserts of Nevada.  We then turned north, heading through Northern California and into Oregon, and then finally into Washington.  These drives have been some of the most beautiful so far, and it will likely be a long time before we forget the beautiful landscapes we’ve seen while looking out our windows.

We’ve stopped at two universities so far on this leg of our tour: Linfield College in Oregon, and Washington State University in Vancouver.  Both were interesting stops for us.  At Linfield we presented to large audiences of male and female students, and had the opportunity to speak with an assembled group of staff and faculty who were actively working to make Linfield as safe a community as possible.  They had taken some impressive strides in their work, and it was fascinating to hear what this small school had done - from having lengthy group discussions to intricately crafting their student code of conduct - to foster an environment of close community and get their students thinking about what it means to be part of a respectful community.

After we left Linfield we had a few days off, so we headed into Portland and checked it out.  It was definitely one of the most interesting cities we’ve encountered so far on the tour: in particular, the “people watching” was fantastic.  People in this area seem to do their own thing, without regard for what others think - and so walking through Portland we saw more widespread tattoos, piercings, dyed hair and eclectic fashion sense than pretty much anywhere else we’d been.  We also had the opportunity to stop by Powell’s, a sprawling bookstore that takes up 3 city blocks and refers to itself as the “city of books” (this was a personal favorite of Dan’s, who loves bookstores and splurged more here than at any other place in the tour), and Voodoo Donuts, which offers some highly original donut offerings (anyone up for a maple sugar donut with real slices of bacon on top?).

We left Portland and headed to Washington State, were we presented to classes of students and community members.  One of our Women’s Program presentations led into a fascinating dialogue centered around how we can work on a societal level to prevent sexual violence, and it was inspiring when our audience members openly shared their perspective on this.  Our last presentation brought us another special treat: our contact person had ordered pizzas to entice students to come, and there were a few pizzas left over after the presentation that somebody had to eat.  We were, of course, happy to help!

Stay tuned for our next post, in which we’ll write about our upcoming stops at Chapman University in Orange County, California, as well as our trip to California State University - Bakersfield!

Stay tuned for new posts!

Hello, everyone!

It has been a whirlwind of a year.  Since we last posted we've achieved some major accomplishments: we presented to over 1,000 of our nation's future military commanders at the West Point Military Academy, we visited our first high school of the year, paving the way for One in Four to reach out to high school audiences, and we've traveled all throughout the eastern half of the United States, driving through every state except Maine, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

Now we're about to embark on the most adventurous leg of our journey yet: we're taking the tour out to the west coast, stopping at schools in California, Oregon, and Washington.  We'll be out there continuously touring for over a month.

Stay tuned as this month progresses, as we'll be posting about our journey here.  Also make sure to check the picture section, as that will be updated too!

Thank you all for your support, and we look forward to sharing our journey with you.

The RV tour team