Tribute to Bonnie Gainer

TRIBUTE TO BONNIE GAINER-HON. BERNARD SANDERS (Extensions of Remarks - May 17, 2004)

HON. BERNARD SANDERS
OF VERMONT
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, May 17, 2004

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize today a woman who is, at one and the same time, exceptional and representative. Bonnie Gainer has served with great dedication as director of the Rutland County Women's Network. Originally the Battered Women's Shelter, this organization has been a mainstay for women who seek counsel, help, and often a safe haven, from abusive relationships.

Bonnie Gainer is exceptional in both the depth of her commitment to women in need, and her ability to organize both staff and community so that those women can find the support and assistance that they all too often desperately require. But in another sense, she is representative: all across Rutland, all across Vermont, all across this nation, women respond and have been responding to the inhospitable condition in which too many of their sisters live.

Physical and mental abuse is, tragically, widespread in America. It is not limited to women, of course, but with Greater frequency than most can imagine wives, girlfriends and daughters find themselves trapped in difficult and dangerous relationships. It is both a point of pride-in the good work they do-and despair-that the number is so large-that I report that the Women's Network has sheltered women in Rutland for 1087 bed-nights in the past three months alone.

For a decade and a half Bonnie Gainer has led the effort to provide a haven and an alternative to women who are abused. She has been a bulwark in the community, a truly essential resource for hundreds and hundreds of women. She is a remarkable woman, and I salute her, and the many, many other women who support each other in times of desperate need.

END