Chrissy Wicks said domestic violence starts behind close doors.

“We don’t know how bad it is getting for somebody,” she said. “It’s good to know the warning signs.”

Wicks is a senior victim support specialist at the Albion Fellows Bacon Center which will host the fourth annual Flowers on the Lake today with the university’s Sexual Assault Gender Violence Prevention Committee

During the awareness event attendees will hear students speak about the deaths of victims due to intimate partner homicide.

Attendees will be given cone-shaped pamphlets filled with flower petals and following a moment of silence the petals will be scattered in Reflection Lake.

Wicks said that each year they have a decent sized crowd with about a 100 to 200 attendees.

She said due to the location it is most often university students who attend but Flowers on the Lake is open to the community as well.

“(Flowers on the Lake) is really just awareness,” Wicks said. “We just want to make people aware there are some things they can do.”

She said it is important that people know the warning signs and perhaps how to intervene if they feel a friend is in danger.

“Students get to inspire hope in ending violence and help victims and their families heal,” Melinda Roberts, director of gender studies said in a news release. “The month of October marks a time of awareness about domestic violence.”

Roberts said it’s meant to push individuals to speak up about the issue and to help comfort the families.

There will also be life-sized cutouts around campus which represent real victims in Indiana. There will be a bad on each silhouette which tells that person’s story.