Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Holds 10th Annual Ride Against Abuse Tonight

For more than forty years the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home has provided services to domestic abuse victims in the Keweenaw Peninsula. The shelter home offers in-home services but has also provided over-the-phone services for many years. Sometimes it may not be safe for a victim to go to the shelter home for whatever reason. Which makes the phone services BKG provides that much more important.

“Safety planning is one thing we will take with people when they come in. We have our on one support advocacy, and there’s no fee for any of our services. So people can come in and develop a safety plan with us. Or just over the phone, I mean our advocates are there 24/7, we’re there every day.” Mary Neimala, Executive Director, Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home

Later tonight the BKG shelter home will kick off Domestic Abuse Awareness Month in October with the group’s 10th annual ride against abuse. Over the years the shelter home’s annual ride against abuse has grown, with more and more bikers taking part. Or residents taking time to watch the parade of motorcycles rumble through the copper country.

“Watch us come over the bridge, that is a great view. And then we will come around Montezuma, down Sheldon, and over to the chutes and ladders parking lot, at Kestner Park.” Mary Neimala, Executive Director, Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home

The BKG Ridge Against Abuse will meet at the AmericInn in Calumet at 6 p.m. The pack of bikers will travel through Laurium to Lake Linden down m-26 and across the Portage Lake Lift Bridge. BKG executive director Mary Neimala says that they should be at the bridge around 6:30 p.m. The ride against abuse will end at Kestner Park. Later in the evening, the Quincy Mine will change its lighting to the color purple in support of the BKG shelter Home and domestic abuse awareness month.