 October is domestic violence awareness month and tonight Clayton Castle takes us to a vigil in Brainerd aimed at honoring and remembering victims of the ongoing crisis. By the time this story ends in two minutes 40 people will experience domestic violence in the United States. Tonight in Brainerd a candlelight vigil was held in honor of the victims and in memory of those lost too early to domestic violence. Right now one in four people experience domestic violence in their intimate partner relationships. That means that any one of us here right now very well could have been a victim of that. Not necessarily that's always spoken about but it is a huge community concern and a huge public health issue that needs to be addressed by our community. On average over 20,000 calls are placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide and domestic violence leading to a death happens far too often. It's not rare it's actually when you have 16 already in the state of Minnesota in 2016 or 2017 you know that's 16 too many anytime we have one that's one too many. The community which showed up in droves to the vigil is where the awareness and advocacy for ending domestic violence begins. I think educating yourself is probably a huge key factor in ending it as well as you know people always say well what can I do I don't want to get involved calling 9-1-1 is is getting involved without getting involved. Being vocal and outspoken about the crisis is also important to ending it all together. To not be afraid to discuss the issues that are going on if there's questions not to be afraid to ask those having that dialogue going removes the stigma and allows people to reach out for help if and when they're in that situation. In the end it's all about how you treat those around you just being a a kind of person just in general you know treat people how you want to be treated. And if anything can be taken away from tonight's vigil is that the vision of a future without domestic violence shines bright reporting in Brainerd Clayton Castle Lakeland News. Tonight's vigil was organized by the Mid-Minnesota Women's Center in Brainerd. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.