Two Hingham teens and a group of their peers made Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month one to remember. Abby Fennelly, Edan Larkin, and the Hingham High School Student Council made it their mission to donate critically needed items to DOVE’s Emergency Shelter.
(Left to right) Abby Fennelly and Edan Larkin gather items for DOVE.
While the student council typically donates to the Hingham Food Pantry, recently dropping off over 500 pounds of food, Fennelly, the Student Council President, was inspired by February being Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month and DOVE’s YouthSpeak training she attended last summer at Thayer Academy. From there Larkin, the Community Service Committee Head, began organizing the month long donation drive. The group collected a huge amount of paper products, towels, and toiletries to help DOVE’s shelter.
“We specifically chose DOVE for our donation drive because we saw it as a perfect time to educate the school on healthy, consensual, and safe relationships, as well as to advocate for domestic violence awareness,” Larkin shared, “1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes and we want to do whatever we possibly can to help, both through assisting those in abusive situations and by educating a new generation that will hopefully lessen those statistics.”
Hingham High School has a strong history of taking a stand against domestic violence. Their Boy’s Track and Field team, led by Coach Fred Jewett, takes the White Ribbon Pledge annually, pledging to never commit, condone, or remain silent about all forms of gender-based violence.
The Student Council is made up of over 150 students and remains the most active club at Hingham High. For Larkin and Fennelly, it’s more than just an extracurricular activity or something to impress colleges; the drives that they host for different organizations help to educate the students on how community service should be an aspect in all of their lives. “We are fortunate enough to attend a school that encourages us to support causes that we are passionate about,” Larkin explained, “I am personally very passionate about domestic violence awareness, so it means a lot to me and many others that we had this opportunity donate to DOVE and help make a difference.”
DOVE offers a comprehensive range of services provided in a safe and comfortable environment, designed to increase safety, promote healing, and expand knowledge and resources for those we serve. DOVE staff are highly trained and well educated on issues related to domestic violence, and work to deliver services in a survivor-centered approach with the understanding that each survivor is an individual and all decisions are deeply personal.
DOVE welcomes refugee and immigrant survivors both documented and undocumented, people with disabilities, people who are deaf or hard of hearing, people of color, and LGBQ/T and gender non-conforming individuals. For more information, visit www.dovema.org or call 24-Hour Hotline: 617-471-1234 or 1-888-314-DOVE (3683).
Kudos to these awesome Hingham students for creating this month long donation drive!