It wasn’t the most thrilling start to a relay Orange has seen, but it was one of the most important.
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Walkers started the White Ribbon Day 24-hour treadmill at noon on Thursday and will continue until noon on Friday.
Orange’s Stewart Vidler took time off in his lunch break to participate.
“Domestic violence is an important issue in our city and our society, one that affects everyone,” he said.
“Holding public events means people are talking about it and domestic violence is something people don’t like talking about.
“Domestic violence should be something that we’re above.”
Alicia Ilievski, vice captain at the Canobolas Rural Technology High School said the relay was important for the community.
“It needs to be known that it’s not acceptable for any man of any age to be violent or abusive towards women,” Alicia said.
Money raised during the relay will be split between Housing Plus and White Ribbon Australia.
Canobolas Local Area Command (LAC) acting Superintendent Bruce Grassick said domestic violence had lead to 32 deaths in NSW in 2015.
“Domestic violence isn’t going to be handled alone by NSW Police, it’s a multi-agency response with help from our community,” Superintendent Grassick said.
Fortunately, it hasn’t lead to any deaths in Orange so far, but Superintendent Grassick said domestic violence was encountered everyday by police officers in the city.
He said police worked with Safety Action meetings with stakeholders around Orange to find ways to reduce the risk and impact of domestic violence to women and men.
Superintendent Grassick said officers from the LAC were fully supportive of the treadmill relay and they would be running across the 24 hours.