Help Expand the Brides' March Movement

The Brides' March is a Memorial Walk for homicide victims of Domestic Violence, inspired by the tragic passing of Gladys Ricart in 1999, on her wedding day, at the hands of an ex-boyfriend.

The founder, Josie Ashton, first marched in 2001 from Gladys' home where she was killed - to the Church where her groom and loved ones awaited her arrival, which never came.

Josie was accompanied by the Ricart family and mostly Latina anti-violence advocates who were providing support services to the family in the aftermath of Gladys' death. She then marched on her own all the way from NYC to Florida, visiting shelters, sharing Gladys' story and engaging survivors fleeing dangerous romantic relationships.

Since then, the wedding dress has become a symbol against Domestic Violence, and many more families join to memorialize their departed loved ones, including the families of #RamonaElizabethRodriguez, #AriannaReyesGomez (seen in the image above), and recently the family of #ShirleyRodriguez, who lost her life in May 2024, at age 29.

There are now dozens of Brides' Marches happening across the nation, and globally, as it helps to draw critical attention and resources, break the stigma and silence around violence in the home, and provides an opportunity for raising awareness and sharing resources in the communities with highest incidents of DV.

But the violence in our society continues, families continue to be impacted, and more work needs to be done to change the culture that breeds these horrific instances in our families and homes.

We are asking for YOUR help to support us with the following activities over the next year, leading up to our 25th Annual Brides' March: Gladys Ricart and Victims of Domestic Violence Memorial Walk.

Brides' March Activities 2024-2025

1. Mireya Cruz, co-founder of the Dominican Women's Development Center and Nuevo Amanecer DV program, and Steering Committee Member of the Brides' March is organizing an inaugural Brides' March in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, slated to take place November 17th, 2024. We would like to send a few boxes of supplies, and support them with promotion and transportation to ensure that the message of the march is heard across the country. It is no coincidence that Gladys, Ramona, Arianna, and Shirley are Dominican. Changing the culture of violence requires us to engage in DR as well.

2. In support of the families of Arianna Gomez and Shirley Rodriguez, we are organizing a Task Force made up of advocates, survivors, and restorative justice experts. This body will help pack the courts with families post DV homicide to bring more visibility and hopefully accountability to the sentencing. Stricter sentencing for those who murder their intimate partners should give potential perpetrators more reason not to commit the crime, as well as more comprehensive follow up when a victim does seek help. The task force will review existing data and gather our own lived experiences around DV fatalities and what leads up to them, in hopes of supporting first responders like Police, Community Organizations and the Legal system to reduce incidents of DV homicide.

3. 25th Annual Brides' March. We hope to take our quarter century march to the next level, and your support can truly help us amplify our message. We want to bring guest speakers, increase our marketing and promotion, and have the food and resources to accommodate all the participants who attend the event.

The Brides' March has been a grassroots movement unfunded for over 2 decades. The impact of the march, driven by the passion of the Ricart family, Josie and the Steering Committee, has helped drive the national conversation around DV. When we first marched in 2001 there was only 1 other DV awareness march taking place in all of NYS. Now there are hundreds of organizations taking this conversation to the streets.

NYS Assembly Member Amanda Septimo provided discretionary support for the last two years, and it completely expanded the reach of the 23rd and 24th marches, which has empowered us now to incorporate and ask for YOUR help to sustain our work moving forward into the next 25 years. #WeWon'tStopUntilTheViolenceStops

The Brides' March have expanded the nuanced conversation around DV, in recent years highlighting and embracing men as needed allies in this work, where previously men have been ousted from the conversation. We continue to dialogue and evolve our understanding and commitment to what it will take to reduce intimate partner homicides, and the culture of violence that's so pervasive in our society.

Your support will help us continue to support the expansion of Brides' Marches nationally and globally, work with families to improve criminal justice responses to DV homicides, and make our 25th Anniversary march as impactful as ever.

We thank you for your support!

Lethy Liriano

Surviving Niece of Gladys Ricart

Brides' March Coordinator