Community members took to the streets of downtown Zanesville for the annual “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” event to raise awareness about domestic violence.

“It’s a wonderful event, it is,” Keane Toney said. “So often, in my career, we handle so many domestic violence situations that you never stop trying to stop it, whether in uniform, retired, we all have a great responsibility to contribute to the solution.”

While the event, hosted by the Muskingum County Domestic Violence Coalition, is largely humorous with many extravagant outfits, awards and lots of men in high-heels, the walk is backed by an impactful message – many people in the Zanesville-Muskingum County community and beyond are impacted by domestic violence.

“It’s just a really good time,” Mitzi Shook, the Executive Director of Transitions Inc., said.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Each year, celebrity walkers, community members and business teams walk a block around the courthouse to raise awareness, and money, for Transitions Inc.

Transitions is a domestic violence shelter in Zanesville that also provides advocacy and guidance to domestic violence victims through their legal processes.

The event featured a key speaker, Katie Delong, who described her domestic violence situation with her then boyfriend that led her into a life of drug abuse and jail time. Delong said she started dating her abuser when she was just 13 years old. After many years, time in jail, rehab and love from her family Delong said she’s almost two years sober, a home-owner and in a healthy relationship.

Taking home the “Best of Show” awards for the 5th annual walk was Stacie Curtis for the women’s group and Seth Vensil for the men’s group. “Best Strut” went to Janet Long and Adam Rothermel. Lastly, the “Most Unique” award went to Mollie Crooks and George Bates.

“I think there are a lot of women that suffer silently and I think events like this give us awareness and give other women voices,” Mollie Crooks said. “One of the things you hear most commonly from survivors is I think they thought they were the only ones.”

Many prominent community members and city officials take part in the event each year to aid in raising awareness, and for a chance to wear high heels.

“I just want to help get to a day where we no longer have to talk about crazy things like that,” George Bates said. “I think it’s a great event. I need to learn how to walk in high heels though, those are killer.”

Last year, the walk raised $1,300 for Transitions, Shook said. While she would like to match that fundraising goal this year, she said the event is more focuses on simply raising awareness rather than raising money.

For National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the National Domestic Violence Hotline has challenged people across the nation to do “one thing” to help end domestic violence. The #1Thing campaign encourages participants to share their one effort to end domestic violence on social media using the hashtags #1Thing and #NDVH. For more information about the campaign visit the NDVH website.

A previous version of this story misspelled Seth Vensil’s last name as Vinsel.