Each of the bright red carvings greeting visitors last night in a conference room at the Mass. Medical Society offered a sorrowful tale.
Pieces of paper taped to the figurines told the stories of domestic violence victims men, women and children.
Melissa Santiago, 29, of Dorchester was stabbed to death, allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend March 9, 2008. Margaret Ninos, 47, of Medfield, died Feb. 6, 2008, from head injuries inflicted by her ex-husband and Shannon Meara, 23, of Woburn, died Jan. 12, 2008, when authorities say her boyfriend shot her.
Their wooden silhouettes were a reminder of lives lost by domestic violence in Massachusetts last year and were among 22 victims remembered during the 28th annual meeting of the REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Inc. organization last night.
REACH is an acronym for Refuge Education Advocacy and Change. The Waltham-based organization was founded in 1981 by a group of community volunteers.
Last night, a group of social workers, law enforcement officials, volunteers and victims gathered to honor those who work to break the cycle. They discussed abuse, accomplishments and goals.
"Tonight is a way for us to thank all of our volunteers and people working with us," said Christine Konys, president of the REACH board of trustees. "It's also a way to get people to keep talking about domestic violence, which is the other most important thing."
Laura Van Zandt, executive director of REACH, said her organization was instrumental in urging state officials to create a public health advisory to address the number of domestic violence victims in Massachusetts last year.
"We were successful in getting the governor and the (state) Department of Public Health to issue a public health advisory. Usually those advisories are for things like swine flu," she said. "The following year the number of homicides dropped off precipitously."
Van Zandt said that so far this year, there have been approximately 14 deaths, including the Waltham murder of Maryse Antoine, 46, who was found strangled in an apartment in March. Authorities have charged Antoine's boyfriend, Souleymane Yacouba-Issa, 34, of Taunton with her murder.
Van Zandt said Antoine never reached out to the agency before her death. She will be among the women honored during next year's meeting.
"It did have an impact on us," Van Zandt said. "You would hope that being a local domestic violence agency that people know we're here and you would hope that people would reach out."
REACH recently began a new project to gather feedback from residents and city officials concerning domestic violence in Waltham.
Joanne Patterson, director of education and prevention programs for REACH, said the organization just began a new project to gather feedback through surveys and interviews about how domestic violence is viewed in the city. The project started this month and is slated to take three years. The end result will depend on the feedback they receive.
Patterson said surveys and interviews will lead to a public forum in the fall and will eventually lead to a domestic violence campaign in the city.
"It might be a public service announcement, a high school education program, an after-school program," she said. "It's whatever the community decides is the best way to combat this issue."
REACH serves about 6,000 adults and children every year through its shelter, hotline and community-based programs in 27 cities and towns in Greater Boston.
Last year the organization answered 2,522 crisis calls, provided 2,919 nights of shelter to 48 survivors and children and served over 39 women in local homeless shelters.
For more information on REACH Beyond Domestic Violence Inc., visit their Web site at www.reachma.org or call 781-891-0724.
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com.
