MOUNT VERNON — “Each one of you here are making a difference,” Joan Stallard, chairwoman of the DELTA Project, said on Wednesday evening during the annual Domestic Violence Vigil held on Public Square. “By your presence, domestic violence has meaning and each of us are working to end it. ... Thank you for joining us, for one by one we matter.”

During the program, Mayor Richard Mavis read a proclamation in recognition of October being National Domestic Violence Month, “Whereas this yearly observance focuses on increasing the public awareness of domestic violence.”

Many members of the community gathered to bring awareness and to remember those lost to domestic violence.

Local resident, Yvonne Sanson, sang of courage and hope.

“This song was written six years ago,” said Sanson, when she spoke on the emotional words of “Been There, Done That.” “It was written for a person we knew that was abused.”

Speaking at the event was Judy Fields, New Directions board of directors and DELTA committee member.

Fields spoke of her experience as a foster mom and how she was encouraged to work with parents who were “walking too close to the edge.” She learned of domestic violence — the silence of those who accepted it as “OK” and the learned behavior stimulated from its roots. But she also found strength and determination to work in preventing it.

kenesha.beheler@mountvernonnews.com