On May 3, a record turnout of almost 1,100 Charlotte-area residents joined 33 PGA TOUR Wives and PGA TOUR golfers to walk 18 holes (five miles) at the Wells Fargo Championship event in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the third annual Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence – Charlotte. Participants raised more than $100,000 to benefit four local domestic violence agencies. Registration was up almost 10 percent over 2010, and donations are on pace to break a new record, as well.

PGA TOUR golfers who walked the beautiful Quail Hollow Golf Course included Hunter Mahan, Mark Wilson, Billy Horschel, Scott Stallings, D. A. Points and Bobby Gates. Many additional tournament golfers joined their wives for the post-walk reception, attended by more than 135 top fund-raisers.

Walk the Course, a collaboration of the Avon Foundation for Women, PGA TOUR Wives Association and the Wells Fargo Championship, received outstanding media coverage, including 15 feature stories and more than 39 segments on five major television networks.

Among the walkers were the Avon Associates and Representatives of Team Avon Carolinas and other walk teams, including Team Cherokee — the top fund-raising team, which raised more than $3,700 for the local beneficiaries. Team Cherokee was walking on behalf of Misty Weegar, an Avon District Sales Manager who tragically lost her life to domestic violence this past August.

“Misty’s situation rocked our Division to the core,” says Kelly Dixon, District Sales Manager of Avon District Team 1423 and the 2011 Walk the Course second-highest individual fund-raiser. “It is so unfortunate that it took an instance like hers to make us aware of the realities of domestic violence. But with our awareness comes a voice, and we will continue to ‘Speak Out’ on Misty’s, and others’, behalf.”

In 2010, 73 people in North Carolina lost their lives because of a domestic assault; worldwide, one in three women is affected by violence. The Avon Foundation awarded the funds raised to The Shelter of Gaston County, United Family Services Shelter for Battered Women, Turning Point of Union County and the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Additional donations can be made at www.WalktheCourseAgainstDV.org.

Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence is the latest initiative of the Avon Foundation for Women Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program. Speak Out has awarded more than $23 million to domestic violence organizations in the United States alone since 2004.

Later this year on September 13, the inaugural Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence – Chicagoland will take place in Lemont, Illinois, in collaboration with the PGA TOUR Wives Association and the BMW Championship. To register to walk, please visit the Walk the Course Web site. To join Team Avon, please contact Walk the Course Program Director Eloise Caggiano at 212-282-5665.

Photo above: Avon Foundation President Carol Kurzig with members of Team Cherokee, who walked in memory of Avon District Sales Manager Misty Weegar.

Photo above: PGA TOUR Golfers Mark Wilson, D. A. Points, Bobby Gates, Billy Horschel and Hunter Mahan and members of the PGA TOUR Wives Association at the start of Walk the Course Against Domestic Violence–Charlotte.