Students gathered in the Commons Living Room on March 17 for the Stand Up, SPEAK Out Concert to kick off SPEAK week.

“The SPEAK week kick off concert was a really innovative way to raise money and awareness to the issue of sexual violence,” Caroline Bones, ’18, said.

SPEAK week is the biggest event of the year for SPEAK, a club that raises awareness about sexual misconduct on campus and focuses on prevention. It provides a chance to highlight current issues surrounding sexual misconduct and its implications on college cam- puses.

SPEAK week events change from year to year. But the exception to that is Take Back the Night, an annual event that always falls at the end of the week. Proceeds from the event benefit

Project Horizon and The Facing Proj- ect of Rockbridge County.

Lambda Chi Alpha reached out to Alpha Delta Pi to join together and partner with SPEAK to plan the kick- off concert.

“We [the brothers of Lambda] all feel really strongly about raising awareness regarding sexual violence,” Teddy Corcoran, ’16, the philanthropy chair of Lambda Chi Alpha, said. “We decided as a group that this was some- thing that we wanted to take a proac- tive role with.”

Kelly Douma, ‘16, volunteered to bake and sell cookies and brownies.

“Stand Up, SPEAK Out was a won- derful opportunity for the community to take a study break and show support for survivors both at the university and in the Lexington community,” Douma said.

The concert featured recording art- ists Megan Davies and Keelan Dono-

van and W&L acapella groups, South- ern Comfort and General Admission. SPEAK provided free pizza and re- freshments. ADPi provided baked goods and sold raffle tickets for South- ern Tide apparel.

“I was very encouraged by the strong turnout for the concert,” said Cody Solomon ’17. “I think that this reflects how much the W&L community is coming together to confront an impor- tant issue.”

The rest of the week featured a show- ing of the documentary, “It Happened Here,” on March 18, and the Take Back the Night event on March 19.

“I think the event was a fun and positive way to promote awareness for sexual assault and I hope it served as an upbeat kickoff event for SPEAK week,” Nicole Kasica, ’16, the philan- thropy chair of Alpha Delta Pi, said.