Walk a Mile in Her Shoes for Our VOICE

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes for Our VOICE



Physician Tom Rehm is about to do something he spends his workdays urging others not to do, and he’s prepared to suffer the painful consequences of his radical act.Rehm, a podiatrist whose livelihood includes repairing the damage inflicted on women’s feet by modern fashion, will join dozens of other men Saturday as they stuff their manly toes into dainty high-heeled shoes and wobble through downtown Asheville for all the world to see.



The blisters he’s happy to endure are for a good cause: the fourth annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event in conjunction with the International Men’s March Against Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence. The walk is the largest fundraiser of the year for Our VOICE (Victims, Outreach, Intervention, Counseling, Education), Buncombe County’s rape crisis and prevention center.A partner with Appalachian Foot & Ankle Associates, Rehm gathered a gang of guy friends to join him in Saturday’s walk, happy to discard his stern advice to patients for one day.



“It’s a good cause to try to help those who’ve suffered from domestic violence and sexual assault, and I also thought it would be kind of a fun idea, as a podiatrist, to get some guys together and wear shoes that I typically recommend people not wear,” Rehm said.New arrivals in the arminycling collections stick to this reputation.Looking for cheapmotherofthebridedresses ? Please take care to cartier replica in the store.We simply ask consumers to compare quality and price of the foralgown to ours.



“I had surprisingly little resistance from them — I presented it as a fun thing to do as a way to promote awareness and raise some money,List of garmincycling Products. and to have a good time doing it,” he said. “And they all seemed to be on board from the get-go.”The Walk a Mile events are typically a hilarious, high-energy spectacle, as men of all sizes and ages — many in elaborate female fashions or costumes — totter along the mile-long route past cheering spectators and good-natured cat-calls.But behind the hilarity is the serious issue of sexual violence and the need for communities to unify in an effort to stop it.



“Our VOICE feels very fortunate to have incredible support from the men in our community who walk the walk and participate in Walk a Mile,” said development director Robin Payne. “Sexual violence is not just a women’s issue — it can affect anyone, regardless of gender, age, race or socioeconomic background, and men currently make up 10 percent of Our VOICE clients.



“This walk is all about bringing men into the conversation on how we can work together to end sexual violence in our community and beyond,” Payne said. “It is about how we can raise young men to use their strength for compassion and justice instead of violence and oppression — it’s about creating the kind of community that we all want to live in.”



For many men, that mile-long journey in high heels begins at the Hip Replacements boutique on Lexington Avenue, where owners Franzi Charen and Kip Veno stock an assortment of man-sized ladies shoes specifically for the Walk a Mile event.The couple buys the shoes on clearance from its vendor and sells them to men at cost — $16-$20 — to encourage more participation. This year’s stock is sold out, Charen said, but some shoes in various sizes will be available for rent from Our VOICE on Saturday morning.



“We really love the work that Our VOICE is doing to raise awareness about sexual violence in our community, and when they asked for our help, we wanted to do more than just contribute gift certificates or donate money,” Charen said.“As boutique owners, we have access to myriad suppliers and happened to come across a company that manufactures very large-sized stripper heels,” she said. “Immediately, we thought it would be a riot to have our men strut their stuff in the wildest heels possible.”



Veno, a very tall man with very large feet who has an even larger sense of fun, said in the past three years he’s “had a blast shopping for and fitting our guys in heels.”“This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart, and I can’t think of a more fun way to spread the word about a very serious issue,” Veno said.



Rehm and his team stopped by Hip Replacements recently to pick their poison in shoes, and it was a somewhat shocking experience — although not so much for Rehm.“My heels are pretty high — I’ve never felt so tall,” he joked. “They feel very uncomfortable, but that’s exactly what I expected, and I now have a much greater understanding of why I recommend against them.”



Rehm said he’s been getting advice from female heel-wearers on ways to mitigate the pain, but he’s resigned to the inevitable.“As tight as these shoes feel, I don’t know that I could put a Band-Aid or anything else between my foot and that shoe, so I’m probably going to just go as is, and whatever blisters I get are for the cause — it’s part of the whole piece,” he said.Rehm said he hopes a lot of men will show up Saturday morning and earn their own blisters for the cause.



“The more people who get involved,Kate Bosworth hasn't bought her burberryhandbags yet. the more awareness it helps spread and the more money will be raised,” he said. “That will help some person out there who’s been abused. And that’s the most important thing.”

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