The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) does more than teach students how to be soldiers. It teaches them how to be leaders, too.

Army ROTC will lead its second annual Stomp out Sexual Assault 5k walk/run on Saturday for Sexual Assault Awareness month.

“It’s a visual demonstration of our commitment to combat sexual assault,” said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Heatherly, a military science professor who started the event.

Stomp out Sexual Assault serves two purposes.

The first is to raise awareness through action and partnership with organizations working to better the community. The organizations include Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse (ATVP), the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), Green Dot and local police departments.

The second is to honor the 100th anniversary of the ROTC program and its commitment to recruit, educate, develop and inspire cadets as commissioned officers for the military.

“There will be a nationwide run to commemorate the anniversary on Saturday,” Heatherly said. “We decided to combine the two to show our support.”

Two MSIII cadets in their junior year of college were given the responsibility of combining the two efforts and organizing the event this year.

They began talking with ATVP, OEO and Green Dot in January, Cadet Dillon Look said.

Cadet Matthew Yusen did most of the administrative work and began advertising the event outside of the ROTC program.

He wanted to make it clear that the unit wants to be active in combating sexual assault outside of what is learned in the classroom about prevention methods. Getting others involved was a priority.

“We fully support equal opportunity,” he said. “We fully support SHARP. It’s an army detail. It is one of our core tenets. We do as much as we can to act on it.”

SHARP stands for Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Prevention, a national program within the military serving the issues its title addresses.

Through this program, cadets receive sexual violence education multiple times a year through labs and meetings with guest speakers. One of the first labs provided addresses moral tenets and expects all cadets to agree to the terms of the program which prohibits hazing, intolerance, sexism and racism, among other things.

“We want to be proactive rather than reactive,” Yusen said. “I believe we’ve had a lot of good education on that side of the house. It’s more than the average student gets. Since we’re leaders we should be the first to demonstrate and enforce what we learn.”

Cadets and cadre alike have many stories where they’ve witnessed or heard about a member of the program acting on or demonstrating what they’ve learned through this training. Stomp out Sexual Assault is an extension of their response.

“We need to be active in and out of our uniforms,” Look said.

The cadets will begin at 8 a.m. at the WSU tennis court parking lot across from the Student Recreation Center. The event is open to the public and no registration is needed. Free t-shirts will be handed out to participants until supplies are gone.

ATVP will provide educational material regarding what people can do to combat sexual assault.