Clothesline Project promotes

domestic-violence awareness

November 6, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - When Betsy Woodin took the shirts off the clothesline, she found two missing and a new one added.

Finding two shirts stolen didn't hurt as much as seeing the new one, though.

Woodin, director of outreach and prevention programs at Alaska Family Services, remembers the message on the missing shirt.

&#8220‘Mothers aren't punching bags' was written on it in glitter paint,” Woodin said. &#8220It's not something someone would wear, with glitter on it.”

The one Woodin found hanging in its place bore a message that hurt and shocked her.

&#8220It was from some sort of video game,” she said. &#8220The message on it was, ‘There's no escape.'”

Woodin had brought the display of about 58 T-shirts with designs and messages about family violence to hang up at Mat-Su College in October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

All the shirts in the display were made by women and children at the domestic violence shelter, women and teens in substance-abuse treatment, teens at the Dorothy Saxton Youth Shelter and students in the School-Within-a-School program at Wasilla Middle School, according to Woodin.

&#8220The people who participated got a great deal out of it,” Woodin said. &#8220This is the work of people who are already abused and trying to have control over their lives.”

The Valley Clothesline Project is a local display similar to the national Clothesline Project, which travels the country, according to Woodin. After a month at Mat-Su College, the display is moving around the Valley - first to Alaska Family Services and then to the treatment center and shelter.

&#8220The places where people helped create it should have it to display,” Woodin said. &#8220Then it's available to loan to schools, libraries or fraternal organizations.

&#8220We're always open to invitations.”

Woodin's hope is that some message on a shirt will be the one that gets through to a woman that she can get help, get out of an abusive situation and that she's not responsible for someone else's happiness.

&#8220Some of these messages might mean more than a flier or a speech,” she said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.