RESPECT!

I found out this morning at work that today, 9/19/08, has officially been designated National RESPECT! Day. What does that mean, you ask? It's actually kind of cool. One of the clients my agency works on is the Family Violence Prevention Fund. I wasn't familiar with it so I looked it up and found some pretty shocking statistics.
1. Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime
2. Between 3.3 - 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually
Those are scary numbers. As I type this, I'm surrounded by at least 100 women, just on my floor. That means approximately 33 of them have probably suffered some sort of abuse. Wow.
So anyway, our PR team developed a pretty cool thing called National RESPECT! Day and have found a great partner in Macy's. Here are some cool things you can do to check it out:

-Explore GiveRespect.org and get mapped by donating $5 in honor of someone you respect, inviting a friend to the rally, or signing the respect declaration
-Purchase a RESPECT! Bracelet from Macy's
-Follow them on Twitter @Give_Respect
-Become a friend of the RESPECT!Campaign on Facebook
-Uploade a photo of someone you respect on Flickr and adding it to their group
-Add a video response of your own to their YouTube channel
-Vote for their “Change This” proposal so they can get their manifesto published
-If you donate $5 today, you'll receive a Macy's Shop for a Cause savings pass valid all day Saturday, September 20th in stores and online

I hope you all have people in your lives that you respect and that respect you as well. It may seem like an overused term, but it's amazing how many people forget about it on a daily basis.