Andrea Conte, the first lady of Tennessee, will be walking through parts of Knoxville today as part of a walking marathon to raise money and awareness for child victims of sexual abuse.
The event is called “Andrea Walks,” and Friday’s walk is a continuation of the campaign, launched in September, to walk 600 miles. Every mile represents 10 children of the 6,000 that were “seen” in Child Advocacy Centers in Tennessee for the year 2003, according to the campaign’s Web site.
Conte was scheduled to walk through parts of the Maryville area Thursday morning. She was scheduled to begin at the Blount County Child Advocacy Center at 9:15 and end at the Promises Day Care Center in Friendsville. Friday morning’s walk will begin at 8:45 at the Rocky Hill Shopping Center, will pass by Bearden Elementary School and will end at Childhelp U.S.A.
“Andrea Walks” is designed to raise funds and awareness about child sexual abuse in communities in Tennessee.
Raising awareness and funds for abuse victims “has been one of her missions,” Cara Wilson, assistant to the governor and spokesperson for the first lady, said.
In another such mission, Conte, a victim of kidnapping in a shopping center parking lot, created You Have the Power, a not-for-profit organization that seeks to prevent violent crime. The organization participates in events to raise awareness about elder abuse, child abuse and sexual abuse, according to the organization’s Web site.
Conte has walked through towns in Middle and West Tennessee, visiting smaller communities along the way, spreading her message, Wilson said. Conte has visited not only the metropolitan areas like Nashville and Memphis, but will also visit rural areas like Mosheim, in an effort to spread the message to as many Tennesseans as possible, Wilson said.
“She wants to cover every aspect of the state, rural and metropolitan areas alike,” she said.
The Web site for “Andrea Walks” reported that there were 11,801 incidents of abuse of children in 2003 in Tennessee. Of those, 2,229 were sexual abuse and 1,529 were physical. Figures nation-wide for 1997 place the number of abuse victims at more than one million, more than 800,000 of which were cases of sexual abuse.
Although the College Democrats at The University of Tennessee were unable to organize a team to participate in the walk, Maggie Valvo, president of the College Democrats, said, “we still support the event completely and all that Andrea is doing for the children of Tennessee.”
For more information about the event, visit http://www.andreawalks.com or call 615-292-7027.
