Bloomsday runners bring awareness for ‘Women Helping Women Week’

The “Joy of Running Together” statue coming in fifth place at Riverfront Park has a metal bowl taped to her stomach, only visible as a bump under the purple shirt she now sports. In white lettering, the T-shirt says “1 in 7” and “#WHWWSpokane.”

On a chilly Tuesday morning, a handful of women – and one sheepish girl – of the Women Helping Women Fund gathered and pulled purple T-shirts over the heads of a few runners to draw attention to “Women Helping Women Week,” which Mayor Nadine Woodward kicked off Monday evening. The women adorned the runners’ heads with flower crowns donated by Bloem.

Downtown buildings will be lighted purple through Friday, and the Pavilion blades in Riverfront Park will receive that treatment Thursday, but the runners are perhaps the most potent symbol of what the group is trying to accomplish. The runners highlighted in purple symbolize the statistics of women in the community. The shirts direct to WHWF’s website, which calls to attention the status of the everyday woman in Spokane.

The “1 in 7” shirt the “pregnant” runner wears stands for the one in seven children in Spokane County who are are born to low-income, single mothers who have high-school degrees or less, according to the report “Changing Our Forecast: The State of Women and Children in Spokane County,” a collaboration between the group and the Spokane Regional Health District.

The report shows a bigger picture of the difficulties facing mothers. Of these low-income mothers, 30% do not receive adequate prenatal care. Child care costs for families with preschool-aged children was cited as one of the largest household expenses.

The report, which was released last May at WHWF’s annual luncheon, starts with the narrative, “Our Girl Spokane,” which tells the story of a girl born in Spokane based upon the statistics, all the way through to her womanhood.

“If there are not improvements in opportunities for our girl, the forecast for her future may remain dim, and if she becomes pregnant, her child may have similar challenges,” the report said. “ … With less education and lower income our girls’ own children will be born into poverty and their future may be equally dim, as the entire cycle begins again.”

Heather Hamlin, WHWF executive director, said the organization put together the report because they wanted to best understand the needs of the community.

“Poverty and education just flows through so many of these issues that are impacting women and children,” Hamlin said. “I think that is just interesting that prenatal care isn’t always accessed by women in Spokane, especially in some of the lower income brackets, those facing poverty, and it has long-term effects for these kids.”