On Friday morning, I visited the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence’s new Advocacy Center in south Corvallis, across Third Street from Lincoln School. October — which we are rapidly closing in on — is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Crystal Kelley,  CARDV’s communication and events director, wanted to talk with me about ways to help get her agency’s messages across.

Those messages, of course, are built around the very basic idea that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and to feel safe, especially in their own home, and that if you’re in a situation where that’s not the case, CARDV is a nonprofit, confidential agency to help you get out of that situation.

In October, CARDV would like to make a big push to raise its profile in Linn County, where the majority of its clients come from. Among its projects is trying to partner with a number of businesses that would provide support by having CARDV literature available and/or serving as a collection point for old cell phones; even an outdated, out of service phone can be used to access 911, which is the first call many prospective clients need to make.

Another one will be getting stickers with CARDV’s hotline phone number — 541-754-0110 or 1-800-927-0197 — affixed in women’s bathrooms around the county, particularly in places like bars, where a potentially abusive situation might arise or escalate. When Crystal mentioned the bathroom stickers, it made perfect sense to me as a means of getting information into the hands of those who need it. Everyone, of course, has to go to the bathroom, and someone in trouble may have ducked into a restroom for safety or just to try to compose herself.

A CARDV sticker in that restroom might end up being a lifesaver.

If you operate or otherwise work at a Linn County business that would like to partner with CARDV in some way — and really, why wouldn’t you, whether you’re a restaurant or hardware store or bicycle shop? — call CARDV at 541-758-0219 or write to Crystal at crystal.kelley@cardvservices.org.

And you don’t need to wait until October.

And now, today’s Catch of the Day, No. 44, a Denkert-made Billy Goodman first baseman’s glove that came from Rick’s Bargain Shop in Lebanon a couple years ago; it was on the verge of being thrown out by Rick’s when a friend rescued it and gave it to me.

Goodman, btw, won the 1950 American League batting title for the Red Sox and finished his 16-year career with an even .300 average.