Pictured (front row): Nyka Jasper Feldman, Executive Director of the Safe Community Coalition; Anne Scott, J Gilberts Private Events Coordinator; Susan Mayman, Langley High School PTSA representative and SCC Healthy Relationships Committee Chair. Back row: Kimiya Hahighi, Langley High School Peer Mediators President; Karen Calpin, McLean High School SCC liaison; Mimi Weisberg, SCC Vice President; Holly Dodd, Langley High School SGA Vice President and MaryAnn Lastova, McLean High School PTSA President. Photo Contributed
McLean — To kick off National Teen Dating Violence and Awareness Month, the Safe Community Coalition hung a banner at the corner of Old Dominion and Dolley Madison in front of J Gilberts announcing their interactive educational program "What's Love Got To Do With It?: Healthy Relationships and Dating" at McLean High School Thursday evening, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. The evening program will contain three components: a live theatre presentation by Deana's Educational Theatre called "Remote Control;" guest speaker, Lynne Russell, President and Founder of DASH (Dating Abuse Stops Here) and mother of 19-year-old Siobhan Russell who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009; and a community forum on relationships and dating lead by INOVA Fairfax Hospital Trauma Physician, Khaled Basiouny, M.D. and McLean Clinical Social Worker, Mimi Weisberg.
The program is sponsored by the Safe Community Coalition in partnership with McLean High School PTSA, Langley High School PTSA, The Madeira School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology PTSA. The Safe Community Coalition would like the entire McLean community to show their support for National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month by displaying purple ribbons at their businesses and homes. Ribbons can be picked up at the Safe Community Coalition office at 6818 Tennyson Drive in McLean or at the McLean office of Long and Foster Realtors at 6862 Elm Street, Suite 100. Students at all four high schools will be wearing purple on Thursday, Feb. 9 and student leaders will be handing out purple ribbons and purple heart stickers that day.