While the holidays are fast approaching, the city of London is about to be lit up in a different way this November.

The Shine the Light campaign, launched by the London Abused Women's Centre, aims to raise awareness about abuse against women and has encouraged the community to go purple for the cause.

On November 1, Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco-Best, Police Chief Brad Duncan, city chief executive Jeff Fielding and Megan Walker, head of LAWC, lit up a tree in violet in Victoria Park for the campaign's kick-off.

Londoners can also look out for other locations to go purple, such as city hall, the Middlesex London Health Unit, the fountain at the Fork of the Thames, the Western Fair, Deb Matthews' constituency building, and for the first time ever, the John Labatt Centre will change its colour for the month while the London Knights will be wearing purple ribbons on their helmets. Residents and local businesses will be participating as well.

Monday, November 15 is also a designated "wear purple" day so offices and schools are encouraged to don the colour for the day. A class at Forest City Secondary School has also written a play to commemorate the month.

The four faces of the campaign are London women who died at the hands of people they "trusted to love them," said Walker. They are Brenda Lee Chillingworth, 38, Vahida Blazevic, 42, Vanessa Ann Bol, 17, and Cheryl Hohner, 31. For more information on the

campaign, visit www.lawc.on.ca.