Badin Hall organized its first event of the school year Friday: the first annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.” The high heels relay race, which took place in the afternoon on South Quad, raised money for St. Margaret’s House, a local day center for women.
Caroline Potts, Badin Hall president, said an annual St. Margaret’s House event was the inspiration for “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.”
“It’s something that St. Margaret’s House does, to prevent, to raise money for awareness to sexual violence,” Potts said. “So usually it’s a mile-long race, and men donate to ‘Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,’ but we wanted to take it to the whole campus community, and so that’s where the inspiration came.”
St. Margaret’s House served 1,200 women and 400 children last year, according to marketing director Cathy Hall.
Badin Hall vice president Devon Creelman said she wanted the event to raise awareness about women’s shelters.
“I hope that it just brings on more awareness to women’s shelters and organizations like St. Margaret’s House, [which] are supporting women in not just the Notre Dame community, but the outside South Bend community as well,” Creelman said.
Potts added that Badin Hall has been trying to do service with St. Margaret’s House for a while.
“I hope [the race] raises awareness for the women who suffer from domestic violence and the women who visit St. Margaret’s House — a day center in South Bend — which they do a fantastic job, and we wanted to do service with them for a long time,” she said.
Sydney Szklarek, a freshman who lives in Badin Hall, said her dorm community would like to begin volunteering at St. Margaret’s House weekly.
“We’re trying to start a thing where once a week, we go and we volunteer at St. Margaret’s,” Szklarek said. “It’s a great starter to get that message out that we’d like to see more of them, and yes, we want the broader community to support them as well because it is a local organization.”
Freshman Alice O’Brien said has found a home at Notre Dame living in her single-sex dorm.
“Notre Dame is really special where you get to live with all women, if you’re a woman, because those girls would become your family here. They call it home under the Dome for a reason,” O’Brien said. “There’s a reason that everybody feels so welcomed here.”
Potts explained that St. Margaret’s House strives to cultivate the unique gifts of all women.
“St. Margaret’s House really strives to cultivate the unique gifts of all the women who live there, and that’s something that we do in Badin too,” Potts said. “We really want to find a place for each person to shine ... and St. Margaret’s House is also very into connecting people to create an idea or help someone.”
Potts added that the women who live in Badin Hall are passionate about anything and everything.
“They’re so electric they are passionate about anything and everything,” Potts said. “They’re so willing to get behind any idea, and so the support for this event with the girls in the dorm has just been outstanding.”
Cathy Hall said St. Margaret’s House breaks down barriers and forges connections.
“So it’s a place where you break down a lot of barriers and realize that we all have our different brokenness ... we all are here to take care of each other and share our lives together a little bit,” Hall said.
When women come into St. Margaret’s House, the center wants to honor who these women are. The house has women who visit sign their name on a door which contains the names of every woman who walked through St. Margaret’s House during its first 25 years.
“When they come here, we see them as a human being that God loves, and ... we want to honor who they are and this beautiful person that they are, and the gifted and talented person that they are,” Hall said. “But maybe, they’ve never been told, ‘I’m proud of you, or you’re really good at that,’ and that’s what we try to do here.”
Creelman said “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” is a new event and that Badin Hall is planning to bring back its signature event, a polar plunge, this winter.
“It’s actually a new event. Our main signature event that we’re hoping to bring back is the polar plunge,” Creelman said. “We do [the polar plunge] in the winter, but we’re hoping to do another big major event during the fall ... we chose a super fun event that is supporting women so we’re pumped."
Students race in high heels for women’s shelter St. Margaret’s House
Notre Dame students race across South Quad Friday in high heels for Badin Hall’s “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes.”
Every woman who enters St. Margaret’s House signs her name on the center's doorway.
