to download - Voice Male Magazine

Red Sox and Yankees Agree: Let's Strike Out Domestic Violence
T
he Gabe Kapler Foundation has been
under way for less than a year but
already its impact is being felt. Its goal of preventing
domestic violence by addressing the
needs of abused women and their children
also includes promoting healthy masculinity.
Lisa Kapler, the victim of an abusive relationship
throughout much of high school,
has become an outspoken advocate for educating
young people about the dangers of
domestic abuse. Gabe, who is convinced that
men have an obligation to speak out against
domestic violence, believes men can serve as
role models for boys and other men regarding
how they treat girls and women.
Gabe’s parents, both educators, have been intimately
involved with the foundation from the outset and his mother,
Judy Kapler, is coordinating the foundation’s activities. These
include: supporting a reception in connection with the Los
Angeles opening of the Clothesline Project exhibit at the
Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, featuring original T-shirts
abuse survivors produced; providing playground equipment
and additional childcare for a Los Angeles battered
women’s shelter; and helping to forge an innovative collaboration
between a Massachusetts shelter, Safe Passage, and the
Men’s Resource Center for Change to provide
positive male role models for children in the
shelter. Funding for the foundation has been
provided by money personally donated by
Gabe and Lisa and through donations made
to the Gabe Kapler Foundation, whose website
is www.kaplerfoundation.org.
Joe Torre’s Safe at Home Foundation,
meanwhile, grew out of Torre’s personal
experience. The former major league player
and longtime manager of the New York
Yankees created the foundation more than
two years ago in memory of his mother, a
victim of abuse at the hands of his father.
The foundation’s guiding principle is that
every child has the right to be safe at home, Torre believes.
Home should be a sanctuary, a safe harbor from any storm. Yet
for many children, home is a place of danger and fear of an
abusive adult, as Torre remembers. He lived it as a child. Even
in his formative years, Joe stayed away from home, fearful of
his own father. As Joe became a father himself, he realized that
no child should have to live with that fear. It was in that spirit,
and in memory of his mother, Margaret, that the Joe Torre Safe
at Home Foundation was established. For more information, go
to www.joetorre.net.
Bill Gallo, www.joetorre.net
FALL 2005 •
17