By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — The community is invited to take parts in events put on this week by The Hiding Place, the Pickens Police Department and the Gabby Petito Foundation.

The Gabby Petito Foundation aims to assist in the fight against domestic violence and missing persons. Its namesake was killed in 2021 by her fiancé while the two were on a cross-country trip.

The Courier spoke with The Hiding Place executive director Breann Griffin and Lt. Detective Chris Griffin with the Pickens Police Department last week about the community events taking place this week.

“We’re very excited about them coming to Pickens, for sure, Chris Griffin said.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, members of the foundation were set to attend the Veterans Day ceremony at Sunrise Cemetery in Pickens from 9-9:45 a.m.

A community meet and greet and resource fair is scheduled from 3:30-6 p.m. that same day.

“This is open to the community,” Chris Griffin said. “Anyone can come to this.”

More than 20 tables from area resources will be set up, Breann Griffin said.

Art created by The Hiding Place’s participants and the Pickens County Youth Board will be displayed during the event.

“It’s multiple events in one,” Breann Griffin said.

That event and all the subsequent community events will be held at The Mill Church, located at 158 Woodrow St. in Pickens.

From 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12, a first responder training and networking event will be held. That event requires registration.

“This is something we’ve put out to agencies across the state,” Chris Griffin said.

That event is for “service providers for domestic violence,” Breann Griffin said.

The training is very detailed, “specific to first responders,” and will be conducted by Gabby Petito’s “bonus dad,” Jim Schmidt, Chris Griffin said.

“As a domestic violence organization, and as a domestic violence survivor myself … I know that there are things that we can all still work on and grow,” Breann Griffin said. “We need to be able to sit down with a foundation that has the experience and education to share all these points that are so important.

“One thing that they’re really talking about is strangulation,” she continued.

Petito was strangled to death.

“In South Carolina, we don’t have very many great strangulation laws,” Breann Griffin said. “That’s something that they’re coming to South Carolina in general for, to work on those strangulation laws and to help be a better support for survivors. That’s something that survivors often state that they go through, but there’s no laws to protect them.”

She is thankful that the training has been opened up to many different categories of jobs, including judges, solicitors and nurses.

“Everyone can use more training on how to approach a survivor,”  Breann Griffin said. “People don’t recognize that we all come into contact with survivors. But how are we responding? Are we responding in a way that keeps them safer or are we responding in a way that harms them further? That’s why it’s important to The Hiding Place in particular.”

If a partner has been strangled by their abuser in the past, the risk of the partner being killed by them in the future is 10 times higher, Breann Griffin said.

Most of the trainings for law enforcement officers are conducted by another officer with experience in those types of cases, Chris Griffin said.

Connecting with a foundation created by family members of a victim like Petito “I feel like makes a bigger impact in our training … vs. going to a training at the Academy,” he said.

“To go to a course where you can connect with a person that’s experience that loss, based on things another person has done, things that we can combat in a law enforcement capacity, I think just makes a bigger impact to our guys, whether it’s our cops, our EMS, fire and our solicitors as well,” he said. “We’re here to serve those victims, so to hear from those victims … really hits home more.”

Something they would like the community to understand better is how victims initially respond to the abuse.

“We see the victim being very apologetic,” Chris Griffin said. “’I shouldn’t have done this, I should have been better, I shouldn’t have pushed his buttons.’ Whatever it is, we see that a lot.”

The events aim at helping attendees “recognize the signs” of domestic violence.

“It can help save lives,” Chris Griffin said.

On the night of Nov. 12, a community restorative justice circle and hot dog dinner will be held.

“We’re asking the public to arrive around 6 p.m.,” Chris Griffin said.

While the dinner is free, attendees are encouraged to donate what they can to the Gabby Petito Foundation, Breann Griffin said.

“The conversation will be about domestic violence, advocacy for survivors, Gabby’s story, Gabby’s legacy and what the community can do to have better responses and be a better, safer community for survivors,” she said of the circle. “A few select community members, some police officers, victims advocates and survivors will be in that circle, along with the Petitos.”

The circle “encourages listening,” Breann Griffin said.

“The prompts and the questions that are asked are to promote thinking,” she said. “A lot of times it’s inner thinking, how you feel about a situation.”

Survivors in the circle will discuss “how healing looks,” Breann Griffin said.

On Friday, Nov. 13, events will be student-focused at Pickens High School, including an assembly for juniors and seniors on dating violence and signs of domestic abuse. A resource table will also be set up.

“None of Friday is open to the public,” Chris Griffin said. “Sometimes in school environments, we’ve seen (students) disclose things about dating violence. So we’re going to hang out and man that table through the two lunches,”

“We’ll have resources there for them if they do disclose,” Breann Griffin added.

Saturday, Nov. 14, is the final community event.

“We will have a community farewell celebration at The Mill Church,” Chris Griffin said. “This is where we’ll present them with the proclamation that we got city council to sign a few weeks ago, naming March 19 Gabby Petito Day, which is her birthday.”

That event will be from 9:30-11 a.m.

Community members are asked to be at the church at 9:30 a.m. that morning.

During the farewell, “we’ll talk about what it means to us to have them come to Pickens and what they’ve done for the community while they’ve been here,” Breann Griffin said.

The morning’s attendees are encouraged to stick around for the Cruise In For Christmas and the Soapbox Derby on Pickens’ Main Street afterward.

For more information, visit The Hiding Place on Facebook or thehidingplacepickens.org.