When Elizabeth Collins assigned her Women’s Studies class an advocacy project, there was never a requirement for her students to act on the ideas they’d come up with.
So when Sophomore and marketing student, Kelsey O’Donnell, and nine other group members decided to take the project further and raise money for the Bowling Green Cocoon Shelter, it came as a pleasant surprise. A couple of weeks later, Cookies for Consent was born.
“The purpose of Cookies for Consent is to raise money for the Cocoon and to raise awareness about rape culture,” O’Donnell said.
The Cocoon Shelter’s mission is to provide “safety, healing and justice for battered women and their children,” according to the shelter’s website.
Junior psychology student and fund raiser participant, Emily Jayjohn, spoke about the importance of dispersing myths and stigma surrounding rape culture.
“There is so much false information about this topic out there. I hope we will help people learn the facts instead,” she said.
The fund raiser will span about a week, starting with a promotional event in downtown Bowling Green on Friday, April 21 from about 11:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Team members along with several volunteers will be passing out bags of cookies and flyers listing statistics about rape culture in the United States, while also asking of for donations of any amount for the Cocoon.
The group will also be at a reserved Union table on Wednesday, April 26, selling cookies and creating a dialogue about rape culture. For the final event, O’Donnell said the group is planning to partner with Cookie Jar or Insomnia Cookies for Friday, April 28, in hopes of donating some amount of the store’s proceeds from that day to the shelter.
“I always wanted to do something along these lines,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve worked closely with other community service events, and I thought it would be really interesting to do something like that for a cause I really believe in.”
O’Donnell said the Cookies for Consent campaign logo includes a purple ribbon to show support for the shelter, as that is also part of their logo.
The campaign could not have come at a more appropriate time, as April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. To honor the importance of this month, the Cocoon hosted an art show on Tuesday from 3-7 p.m. which featured art work created by survivors of domestic abuse.
Anyone interested in donating to the Cocoon Shelter can email [email protected] or visit www.cocoonshelter.org for more information.
