The quote reads this way: “Why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed.”

And this is the theme for 2023, teams and teamwork, to make the 4K Safe Walk a monument to building enough speed to combat domestic violence.

“When we look at children into adulthood and they have substance abuse issues and the like, it's all associated with adverse childhood experiences,” Kathy Verano was saying recently. “We have to start here, raising awareness by working with these families.”

Verano's vocation is to be the heartbeat of Safe Futures, a local agency aiming to save lives, restore hope and change the future for those impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking in southeastern Connecticut.

Among Safe Futures' most popular community endeavors is the annual Safe Walk, this year Sunday, Oct. 22 at Waterford High School. The walk begins at 9 a.m. in support of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Such efforts to raise awareness are quite common now in and out of our corner of the world. Yet there may be no more prevalent issue that rallies the sports community more than domestic violence, evidenced by Joe Torre's “Safe At Home Foundation” and Russell Wilson's “Pass the Peace,” which encourages people to donate to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

It is in this spirit that Safe Walk honorary chair MIke Buscetto wants to pack the track at Waterford High with as many teams as possible. High school teams, college teams and even political teams. As previously stated: Teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed.

“This is obviously a cause that we can all support,” Buscetto said. “But it's also about something bigger. It's about teams and community. People helping people.”

Already, athletic teams at Avery Point have committed. So has the women's basketball team at Post University in Waterbury, coached by Courtney Burns, who recently led Mitchell College to the NCAA Div. III Tournament. First Selectman Rob Brule and the Waterford Republicans will have a team as well as the Montville democrats, led by mayoral candidate Lenny Bunnell and longtime councilman Billy Caron.

“It doesn't matter what side of the aisle we're on and what team you play for,” Buscetto said. “We can all

rally around this.”

And then there's the educational part.

“When we talk about children and effects of domestic violence, there is the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) score, a measure of different types of abuse, neglect, and other indications of a rough childhood,” Verano said. “The higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems. We do Camp HOPE America (the leading year-round camping and mentoring program in the country for children and teens impacted by domestic violence) for children with scores of four or higher on the ACE of the kids with children that we screen in our residential programs. In our shelters and programs, there are scores of six and higher.”

This is why Buscetto and Verano believe it important not merely to attract teams to the walk, but for the residual effect of what the community might learn.

“It's important because the high school teams think they're coming just because we're challenging the school. We are,” Verano said. “But then they see all these adults, all these people in the community. They start to take it a little more seriously.

“And you would be surprised how many of these children are experiencing domestic violence in their relationships, teen dating violence. We're in the schools and we teach healthy relationships. Violence is preventable.”

Adult registration is $25 (children are free). There will be raffle baskets for all ages and food trucks on site. The better the attendance, the better Verano and her agency can do their work.

“We work with 10,000 victims a year just in southeastern Connecticut,” Verano said. “Think about that. But when we look at our census, our population, one in four women and one in seven men are victims of physical intimate partner violence. So we really should be working with at least 25,000 victims a year. And you're not going to do that unless you have awareness, the Family Justice Center, multiple agencies working together.”

Learn more about the walk at safefutures.org.