About 30 people braved the chilly October air Sunday night to participate in a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of violence and honor the survivors — the kick-off event for Ames-ISU YWCA’s Week Without Violence.

The vigil, which began at dusk on the steps of Curtiss Hall, was lead by community leaders and women’s advocates, including Mayor Ted Tedesco and Pam Thomas, director of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.

In his speech, Tedesco cited the activities of the Ames Youth Committee when Rev. Fred Phelps came to protest the openly gay Pastor Steve Sabin of the Lord of Life Lutheran Church as a sign of Ames’ lack of tolerance for hate.

“The committee immediately and unanimously decided to make a statement that diversity is important in this community,” he said. The committee released a statement to the press criticizing Phelps’ stance against homosexuality.

During her time behind the podium, Thomas told a story about a Brooklyn woman, Freddie Hamilton, who sued a gun maker for the death of her youngest child and won. Thomas said people need to be more proactive in stopping violence, such as Hamilton was.

“Don’t mourn,” she said. “Organize.”

She also criticized media coverage of acts of violence such as the Columbine massacre.

The vigil, which lasted for about an hour and a half, opened on campus with remarks from Matt Cobb, a chaplain from St. John’s by the Campus, 2338 Lincoln Way.

“We still live in a world where differences are feared,” he said. “Today, we put aside our differences.”

Cobb said violence everywhere must be confronted because it has impact on everyone.

“There is no such thing as an isolated incident,” he said. “What affects one affects us all.”

After a short, prepared service and a choral reading from four members of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, a new campus group of women’s advocates, small clumps of four or five people passed around the flame, lighting each others’ candles.

They then proceeded to Brookside Park in silence, reflecting on the theme of this year’s Week Without Violence, “Imagine a World Without Violence.”

It was there that they met with the other speakers for the night: Julie Wooden, a staff member at Assault Care Center Extending Shelter and Support (ACCESS); William Jacobs, an attorney with the Story County Legal Aid Society; and Christa Jacobs, a victim advocate for ACCESS.

The vigil ended at Brookside with a poem titled “Remember Their Names,” during which the names of all the women who have been killed in Iowa during a domestic dispute since 1995 and the circumstance surrounding their death were listed.

Kandice Harper, a member of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, said after the vigil that she thought it was very moving.

“The whole thing was really powerful,” said Harper, freshman in chemistry. “Everyone should have gotten involved.”

Other events during the Week Without Violence include an open mic night at the Maintenance Shop at 7:30 on Tuesday, a discussion on the presentation of violence at noon on Wednesday in the Gold Room of the Memorial Union and a food drive at the West Ames Hy-Vee from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

For more information, contact the YWCA at 294-1663.