Event committee member Melissa Rick, left, with bestselling author and keynote speaker Rachel Louise Snyder at Domestic Violence Solutions’ 12th Annual Luncheon. 
Domestic Violence Solutions staff member Zahida Pacheco, second from right, with DVS supporters and survivors, from left, Sheila Palua, Yanet Garcia and Nataly Sarabia. 
Domestic Violence Solutions top luncheon donor L&J Redman Trust was represented by Jill Redman, left, Brady Redman, Joy Redman and Brandi Redman. 
Event chairwmoman Danielle Hazarian, left, and DVS executive director Jan Campbell. 
Sponsor Judy Stapelmann, left, and DVS staff member Amelia Borrayo. 
DVS staff member Veronica Cubillo, left, and attendee Claudia Taden. 
Nearly 200 people attend DVS’ 12th Annual Luncheon in the Loggia Ballroom of the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore in Santa Barbara.
Domestic Violence Solutions for Santa Barbara County hosted its 12th Annual Luncheon on Feb. 23 with the theme “Strong Voices Together.” It was held at the Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore in Santa Barbara, and it raised awareness and funds to support domestic violence victims and their families.
“We had nearly 200 attendees, 90 of whom were VIPs, and raised over $115,000 to support our mission,” marketing and communications officer Julia Black told Noozhawk.
The enthusiastic crowd mingled in the courtyard and enjoyed lavender mimosas and bloody marys before the doors opened to the Loggia Ballroom.
The top sponsor was L&J Redman Trust along with other major donors AGIA Affinity, the Campbell Family Fund, Kielle and John Horton, Judy and Jack Stapelmann, the Capritto family, Virginia Benson Wigle, Green Hills Software, Las Palmalitas, Mission Wealth Management, Palette Life Sciences, Zora and Les Charles, and many others.
Luncheon committee members included event chairwoman Danielle Hazarian, Julia Black, Jan Campbell, Julie Capritto, Renata Coimbra, Carol Fell, Craig Leets, Jenni-Elise Ramirez and Melissa Rick.
The keynote speaker was acclaimed Rachel Louise Snyder, author of The New York Times best-selling book No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us. Snyder traveled from Washington, D.C., to provide true insight into the world of domestic violence, and she happily signed her book for many luncheon guests.
The book received the Lukas Work-In-Progress Award from the Columbia School of Journalism and Harvard’s Nieman Foundation. It was named one of the best books of 2019 by Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, the Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, The Economist, New York Times staff critics, and many others.
Snyder earned a bachelor of arts degree from North Central College and a master of fine arts degree from Emerson College. She is an associate professor of creative writing and journalism at American University in Washington.
“The biggest myth is that if you’re not at the end of a punch, it’s not domestic violence,” Snyder said. “In America, domestic violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime. Our society has not taken the true measure of this problem.”
She weaved her remarks around the story of Michelle Monson Mosure and her two young children, who were murdered by husband and father Rocky Mosure in 2001 in Billings, Montana. The couple met when Michelle was 14, and they had a baby together a year later. Rocky was 10 years her senior.
“We know the story — man kills family, self,” Snyder said. “We ask ourselves, why didn’t Michelle take the kids and leave? The answer is, as it almost always is in family violence, that she feared her husband would kill her. Before he does, however, Rocky relentlessly stifled Michelle’s life and corroded her will. Additionally, she was failed by her local law enforcement and criminal justice system.
“This is why home is the most dangerous place to be a woman.”
No Visible Bruises starts with public health researcher and Rutgers University professor Evan Stark describing “coercive control,” a steadily escalating pattern of emotional abuse that involves taking over every decision in a woman’s life, controlling the money, isolating her from family and friends, monitoring her conversations and movements, and eroding her confidence.
This emotional abuse is imposed through an alternating cycle of devotion and rage, turning women into hostages in their own homes.
Speaker Miriam Ceballos started by saying, “My story isn’t pretty,” and she described her path to now working for DVS after growing up in a home with domestic violence.
“My mother was slapped, kicked and battered,” she said. “Her way of shielding me and my brother was to put us in a closet so we wouldn’t see the physical abuse. I lived with this for two decades.”
Domestic Violence Solutions is dedicated to ending the cycle of domestic violence by providing prevention and intervention services, emotional support and advocacy to those in crisis, and playing a leadership role in effecting social change. The DVS 24-Hour Crisis and Information Line is 805.963.4458.
Click here for more information about Domestic Violence Solutions. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk contributing writer Rochelle Rose can be reached at rrose@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkSociety, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Become a fan of Noozhawk on Facebook.