House of Ruth raises $200,000

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Tim Russert, host of “Meet the Press,” may have been the headliner at Tuesday’s annual fundraising luncheon for the House of Ruth, an organization that aids women and children who are victims of domestic violence, but the other guest speakers may have stolen his thunder.

More than 900 guests on M&T Bank Stadium’s club level first heard from District Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley, Gov. Martin O’Mallley’s wife and a former member of the House of Ruth board. She had spent the morning in Courtroom 2 of the North Avenue courthouse hearing requests for protective orders.

O’Malley said, “It takes an entire community to enforce that piece of paper,” intended to protect women from their abusers.

Another speaker was Bill Mitchell, father of Kristin Mitchell, a woman killed by a boyfriend in 2005 just three weeks after her graduation from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Mitchell noted that her daughter’s commencement address was given by Russert.

Carole Alexander, executive director of the House of Ruth, said Russert was not told of the connection until he arrived at the event.

Russert was paid $50,000 for his appearance at the event, which raised about $200,000, Alexander said, and he tried to connect some of the national political content of his talk to the theme of domestic violence.

“We have to lower our voices,” Russert said, in an age when the political discourse is all shouts and tirades.

WBAL-TV’s Jayne Miller, the emcee, said that in the Virginia Tech shootings, “domestic violence shows up in the background of this event,” as the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, previously stalked women who didn’t want to press charges.

And if little happens if charges are pressed, “Why should they?” Miller asked.

llazarick@baltimoreexaminer.com

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