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Last night I had the opportunity to attend the annual fund raiser for Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR) at Solidiers and Sailors in Oakland.  My wife and her fellow residents at Magee sold candy roses at Valentine's Day and organized an event at Firehouse Lounge to raise the $1000 necessary to buy a table at the PAAR event and I was lucky enough to join them. (actually they raised $1700! Way to go girls!)

PAAR, as I learned last night, does great work right here in Pittsburgh with all aspects of rape and sexual violence.  They maintain a 24 hour rape hotline, work to educate Pittsburgh about sexual violence, have support groups for survivors and provide crisis intervention, counseling and advocacy.

Despite the fact that I personally know several people that have been the victims of sexual violence it still surprised me to learn that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will become victims by the age of 18.  This is an astounding number.  As was mentioned last night, the best way to prevent sexual violence is to bring attention to it and educate people about it.  The keynote speaker told an incredible story of her own personal experience of being raped by her band director in high school.  What was truly shocking and appaling was that she was only one of many children that were attacked by this man over the course of many long years.

Needless to say the work that PAAR is doing is extremly important and of great benefit to many here in Pittsburgh.  My wife and I were happy to be able to contribute in a small way last night but PAAR relies almost entirely on donations to continue to provide their services.  Thus in writing this I hope that I can bring additional attention to their efforts and hopefully convince some of you to contribute as well.