Spirits on Pine

Halloween Fun Run for SAFE

A Purple Community Event for Families, Music & Awareness

Get ready for a Halloween celebration with a purpose!

The Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce presents Spirits on Pine: Halloween Fun Run for SAFE, a community event bringing families, friends, businesses, and neighbors together for a day of Halloween fun while showing support for SAFE.

Wear your purple, bring the family, put on your favorite costume, and join us in Ponchatoula for a day filled with activities, music, community, and awareness.

Event Details

Saturday, October 24
8:00 AM – 2:00 PM

101 E. Pine Street
Commuter Parking/Ponchatoula Pavilion
Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Kids Under 5 Are Free

One child under five per paying adult.

What’s Happening?

Fun Run for a Cause

Start the day moving for something that matters.

The Halloween Fun Run brings the community together to support SAFE while helping raise awareness about domestic violence.

Whether you’re participating or cheering others on, come dressed for the occasion and ready to show your support.

Family Activities

Bring the whole family!

Spirits on Pine is designed to be a community celebration with activities families can enjoy together throughout the event.

Costume Contest

It’s Halloween, of course there are costumes!

Come dressed in your Halloween best and join in the costume contest.

Whether you’re spooky, silly, creative, or completely over-the-top, we want to see what you’ve got.

Community Pub Crawl — 21+

Adults 21 and older can take part in the Community Pub Crawl and experience another side of Spirits on Pine while supporting a community-wide event with a cause.

Live Music

Brandon Bennett and His 7-Piece Band

Enjoy a live concert featuring Brandon Bennett and his 7-Piece Band as music becomes part of the day’s celebration.

Come for the cause. Stay for the music, costumes, family fun, and community.

Why Purple?

Purple is recognized as the color of domestic violence awareness.

Spirits on Pine is more than a Halloween celebration. It’s an opportunity for our community to come together, increase awareness, support SAFE, and demonstrate that creating safer communities is something we can all participate in.

Wear Purple. Support SAFE. Celebrate Community.

Supporting SAFE

SAFE — Southeast Advocates for Family Empowerment works to promote social change by empowering survivors of abuse and their children to lead safe, violence-free lives while partnering with the community to provide education and resources that promote healthy relationships and hold perpetrators accountable.

Events like Spirits on Pine create opportunities to bring conversations about domestic violence awareness into the community while bringing people together around something positive: the belief that everyone deserves to live safely and free from violence.

Bring the Community Together

Invite your friends.

Bring your family.

Wear purple.

Put on a costume.

Run for a cause.

Enjoy the music.

And spend the day helping us show what can happen when a community comes together.

Together We Can Create a Safer, Stronger Ponchatoula.

More Information

For additional event information:

Email: ponchatoulaspiritsonpine@gmail.com

Visit the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce website for additional information.

[Learn More / Register]

Need Help From SAFE?

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, support is available.

SAFE 24/7 Crisis Line
985-542-8384

You do not have to wait for an emergency to reach out.

safelouisiana.org

Building Safer Communities Together

A Community Education Series About Domestic Violence, Healthy Relationships & Prevention

Safer communities begin with informed communities.

Domestic violence affects more than the people directly experiencing it. It affects families, friendships, workplaces, schools, and entire communities.

But you don’t have to be a domestic violence professional to make a difference.

SAFE invites community members ages 13 and older to join us for Building Safer Communities Together, an interactive community education series designed to help everyday people better understand domestic violence, recognize healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors, support people experiencing abuse, and discover the role each of us can play in prevention.

These aren’t lectures. Come ready to think, talk, ask questions, and learn alongside your community.

Explore the Series

Understanding Domestic Violence: It’s More Than Physical

What does domestic violence actually look like?

Many people recognize domestic violence when it becomes physical. But abuse can begin long before the first physical act of violence.

Together, we’ll explore how patterns of power and control can appear through emotional, financial, digital, sexual and physical abuse, as well as stalking.

We’ll also talk about common myths surrounding domestic violence, warning signs you may notice in someone you care about, how trauma can affect a survivor’s responses and decisions, and why the question “Why don’t they just leave?” doesn’t tell us the whole story.

You’ll leave better prepared to:

• Recognize different forms of abuse

• Identify patterns of power and control

• Notice possible warning signs

• Challenge common myths about domestic violence

• Better understand why leaving an abusive relationship can be complicated

• Know when and where help is available

Education is prevention.

Healthy Relationships: What Love Should Feel Like

We spend a lot of time teaching people what unhealthy relationships look like.

But do we spend enough time talking about what healthy love looks like?

This conversation shifts our attention from red flags alone to the relationships we actually want to create.

We’ll explore respect, trust, communication, boundaries, consent and equality while learning how to recognize both green flags and red flags in dating and relationships.

Whether you’re dating, parenting a teenager, supporting a friend, or simply interested in building healthier relationships, this session offers practical information you can use in everyday life.

Together we’ll explore:

• Green flags in healthy relationships

• Dating red flags worth paying attention to

• Respect and equality

• Personal boundaries

• Consent

• Healthy communication

• How to disagree without fear, intimidation or control

Healthy relationships aren’t relationships without conflict. They’re relationships where people can navigate conflict while maintaining safety, dignity, respect and choice.

Supporting Someone Experiencing Domestic Violence: You Don’t Have to Have All the Answers

Someone you care about tells you:

“I don’t think my relationship is okay.”

What do you say next?

Many of us want to help but worry about saying the wrong thing. Others immediately want to fix the situation, confront the abusive person or convince the survivor to leave.

Supporting someone experiencing domestic violence can look different.

This interactive conversation will help you understand how to become a safer person for someone to talk to—without feeling like you have to become their counselor, advocate or rescuer.

You’ll learn how to:

• Listen without judgment

• Respond when someone discloses abuse

• Use supportive, trauma-informed language

• Know what to say—and what may unintentionally shut down the conversation

• Respect survivor choices and autonomy

• Understand the basics of safety planning

• Connect someone with SAFE and other appropriate resources

One of the most important things we can remember is:

Supporting someone doesn’t mean taking control of their situation.

Abuse takes choices away. Support can help give choices back.

Prevention Starts With Us: Building the Community We Want to Live In

What if domestic violence prevention didn’t begin when someone was already being hurt?

What if it started much earlier?

Domestic violence prevention happens when young people learn that jealousy isn’t proof of love. It happens when children learn that boundaries deserve respect. It happens when friends stop normalizing controlling behavior. It happens when adults model healthy conflict and when communities make it easier, not harder, for people to ask for help.

This final conversation asks us to look beyond responding to violence and consider the kind of community we want to create together.

We’ll explore:

• What domestic violence prevention actually means

• How children and teens learn about relationships

• Messages we may unintentionally normalize

• How to model healthy relationships

• The role of families, schools, workplaces, friends and community organizations

• Safe bystander action

• How everyday people can challenge harmful behaviors without becoming domestic violence professionals

• Practical ways each of us can contribute to a safer community

You won’t leave with the responsibility of solving domestic violence.

You’ll leave with something much more useful:

An understanding of the role you can play.

Who Should Attend?

You.

You don’t need professional experience with domestic violence.

You don’t need to be a counselor, social worker, teacher or advocate.

This series is designed for the general community, ages 13 and older.

Come if you’re a:

• Parent or caregiver

• Teen or young adult

• Educator

• Faith community member

• Employer or coworker

• Coach or mentor

• Friend or family member

• Community leader

• Neighbor

• Or simply someone who wants to help create healthier relationships and a safer community

All are welcome.

What to Expect

Each session is approximately 60 minutes and designed to be conversational, engaging and practical.

You’ll encounter real-world scenarios, community discussion, interactive activities and information you can take home and use.

Because domestic violence can be a personal and sensitive subject, you will never be required to share personal experiences.

Come to listen. Come to participate. Come with questions.

Most importantly, come as you are.

Why SAFE Is Having These Conversations

SAFE — Southeast Advocates for Family Empowerment — believes ending domestic violence requires both supporting survivors and partnering with the community to create change.

Our mission is:

To promote social change by empowering survivors of abuse and their children to lead safe, violence-free lives while partnering with the community to provide education and resources that promote healthy relationships and hold perpetrators accountable.

Building Safer Communities Together is one way we put that mission into action.

When more people understand domestic violence, recognize healthy relationships, know how to respond to survivors, and challenge behaviors that normalize abuse, our entire community becomes better equipped to create change.

You Don’t Have to Wait for a Presentation to Ask for Help

If something you’ve read here reminds you of your own relationship or someone you care about, you don’t have to figure out what to do alone.

SAFE’s 24/7 Crisis Line

985-542-8384

safelouisiana.org

You don’t have to have everything figured out before reaching out.

Help Us Build a Safer Community

Maybe your contribution begins by attending one conversation.

Maybe it’s bringing your teenager.

Maybe it’s learning how to respond differently when a friend opens up.

Maybe it’s recognizing a behavior you once thought was normal.

Maybe it’s sharing a resource with someone who needs it.

Every one of those actions matters.

Safer communities aren’t something we find. They’re something we build.

And we build them together.

Education is Prevention.

[Register for the Presentations] [Learn More About SAFE] [Get Help]