The 7th Annual YWCA “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes”® event was held on April 22nd of this year in downtown San Jose…and was a huge success!  We had more walkers than ever before (nearly 500!) gathered at Plaza de Cesar Chavez and ended at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.  The event raised close to $40,000 on behalf of sexual assault awareness, exceeding its goal.

Walk a Mile brought walkers from all around Silicon Valley who were determined to make a statement.  Not only were there city officials, individual and family walkers, but there were groups of walkers from clubs and businesses and schools: groups from Lockheed Martin (our largest group!), the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, Thoits Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, De Anza College, San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, American Medical Response, JDV Hotels, the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Milpitas, the Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club “Cool Cats”…and many, many more!  They were a sight to behold.

We would like to give special thanks to the many people who supported this event, because without their help, we could never have made it so successful.

To our co-chairs:  San Jose Police Chief, Rob Davis; San Jose Fire Chief, Darryl Von Raesfeld; San Jose Hilton General Manager, John Southwell; photographer, Chris Johnson; American Medical Response Director of Operations, Wayne Davis; engineer Mike Maionchi and San Jose Convention & Visitor’s Bureau CEO, Dan Fenton.

To our sponsors:  The Crowne Plaza Hotel-San Jose and John Southwell (part of DiNapoli Capital Partners); NBC Bay Area; KBAY Radio; The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal; and Kaiser Permanente.

To our in-kind donors:  Joseph George; M. E. Fox Company; Sherry Tesler; Pat Lawson.

And to the many volunteers who helped us on event day!  Thank you all so much and know that you made a huge difference…especially during these tough economic times!

Remember to SAVE THE DATE for next year:  Wednesday, April 21st, 2010.