Supporting abuse victims

Ray Dorn, a former member of the Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter board of directors, delivers food items to Ashley Dahl, the shelter’s associate director, on behalf of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The shelter is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year; it continues to serve victims of abuse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Courtesy photo

• Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter celebrates 25 years of service

BROOKINGS – When Margaret Denton and Mary Helen Hopponen called together women of all ages for a retreat in 1974, their goal was to discuss issues women were facing and see how they could all support each other.

They called themselves the Brookings Women’s Center and began talking about equality in the workplace, finance, education, things like that. They were not, at first, talking about domestic abuse.

“Times were changing for women and (we) realized that hey, we had a lot of talented women that were maybe not getting some of the positions, either at the university or the city or whatever, and needed kind of to get together and support each other,” Denton said.



For the complete article see the 12-12-2012 issue.

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