I am in your beautiful Coeur d'Alene area visiting my sister. I love the quiet road I walk on each day and the scent of the woods and the sight of white tail deer. October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and Breast Cancer Awareness month. I am from Oregon, I am a survivor of breast cancer and a survivor of domestic violence and I was the director of a nonprofit which served victims of domestic and sexual violence for 12 years, and as a result, October is a special month for me. I have noticed, as I read your paper each morning, that there are many fundraisers and articles on breast cancer and breast cancer awareness but I had yet to see anything on domestic violence until Monday the 13th when I read "The Front Row" by Jim Litke.

I was so gratified to see the first article on this subject written by a man and that it was about the NFL and its obligation to play a larger role in combating this crime and raising awareness.

As a result of this article I contacted your local North Idaho Violence Prevention Center and spoke with its new director, Katy Coker, just to see what was up in Kootenai County regarding this issue.

Katy is knowledgeable and could speak intelligently about this issue and the agency.

The information she provided inspired me to visit the Idaho State Police website where I could review the Idaho STOP implementation Plan for 2014-2016. Be proud of this plan and the work which went into developing it and the resulting grant money which will be provided for creating a multi-disciplinary approach, provide training, and develop services for victims of domestic and sexual violence. The statistics in this plan point out that Kootenai County has the highest rate of domestic violence in Idaho at 5.27 per thousand per year.

This number, however, only reflects the incidents that were reported. Last year 1,200 Protective Orders were filed in Kootenai County.

NIVPC provided shelter for 16 women and eight children in September of this year and used five hotel rooms. The average stay in a shelter was about two weeks.

It has a 20-bed shelter and must use hotel rooms for male victims, if the shelter is full or there are other extenuating circumstances with the victim involved. It has to pay for these hotel rooms, with no discount, from its already stretched budget. Our agency in Coos County has two 12-bed shelters, one for single women and one for moms and kids. In our county, Red Lion gave our agency five free nights per month, there were times we never used a room and times we needed all five nights.

From my own experience, agencies which provide this critical service to victims and their children have a difficult time meeting the needs of walk-in victims, running a shelter and providing services to those clients and their children, servicing a hotline, serving victims which may be in a hotel room - and the list goes on.

They need your support both financially and physically. I am sure they can always use donations of goods such as toilet paper, paper towels, sheets and blankets. Contact the office and ask what you can do to help.

NIVPC is a valuable community resource and it needs your support. It is presenting a free film, "Private Violence" on Monday, Oct. 20 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Kroc Center. This is an HBO documentary that will also be previewed that same night on HBO.

Katy then informed me that the center would be having an awareness and fundraising event on Nov. 19 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Seasons restaurant on Lakeside and Second in downtown Coeur d'Alene. This event will include gratitude to donors, a dinner and silent auction.

Judy Moody is a resident of Coos Bay, Ore.