Hempstead, NY – Hofstra University student-athletes ran/walked 1,000,200 yards to complete their goal of one million yards in the two-day Yards for Yeardley charity event for the One Love Foundation last Friday.

The Yards for Yeardley event, sponsored by the Hofstra Student-Athlete Committee (SAAC), concluded a week of activities in support of the One Love Foundation to increase the awareness of and prevent relationship and domestic abuse.

On Thursday, April 30, approximately 60 Hofstra student-athletes took part in the One Love Foundation Escalation Workshop, viewing the film and commenting on the importance of the message within. Katie Hood, chief executive officer, and Jaklyn van Manen, program coordinator of educational initiatives, represented the One Love Foundation at Hofstra.

The Yards for Yeardley event was Hofstra Athletics' follow-up to help increase awareness and prevent relationship and domestic abuse. On Thursday, May 7, Hofstra Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeffrey A. Hathaway led a big group of administrators, coaches, student-athletes and students that recorded 578,000 yards. The following day, the goal of one million yards was achieved after seven hours when 13 students, locked together by arms in solidarity for the One Love Foundation, completed the final 2,600 yards.

Portions of the Escalation Workshop, including interviews with Hofstra student-athletes, as well as the Yards for Yeardley were taped for a One Love Foundation feature on Yahoo News with Katie Couric.

"I am extremely proud to be part of bringing the Hofstra community together in support of the One Love Foundation," James Lally, Assistant Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete Services and Life Skills Development commented. "The turnout and the dedication of participants sent a strong message that our campus will not tolerate relationship and domestic violence."

The Yeardley Reynolds Love Foundation was created in 2010 to honor the memory of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia senior women's lacrosse player who was beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend just weeks short of graduation. The Foundation is more popularly known as One Love, with "One" representing the number that Yeardley wore on her jersey during her high school and college lacrosse career. 

After her death, Yeardley's family and friends were surprised to learn the statistics – that 1 in 3 women in this country will be in a violent relationship during her lifetime – and grew increasingly aware that young people in particular did not seem to realize that they, as a group, were at greatest risk.

Today, One Love's goal is to end relationship violence by engaging young people in a movement for change.  The Foundation develops compelling educational content that sparks new and novel discussions among workshop participants, inspiring them to work together to affect change in their communities. At every step, One Love empowers young people as the critical leaders of this movement, uniquely suited to mobilize a generation towards a brighter future where relationship violence is far less prevalent.

Team One Love motivates each campus to engage their own creativity and connectedness in the movement to end relationship violence. Members of Team One Love initially work to disseminate the Escalation curriculum broadly on their campus. Then work to creatively assess what makes sense for their campus.  Team One Love teams are charged with developing school-based awareness campaigns, speaker series, creative projects, and group activities that keep relationship violence at the forefront of discussion long after participation in the Escalation Workshop. 

Earlier this year, the Hofstra Women's Lacrosse team also completed one million Yards for Yeardley.

The One Love Foundation events are part of a campus-wide program, including the It's On Us campaign, to end relationship abuse on college campuses.