If you have been following our progress with the Rich and Happy giveaway you’ll know that the path has been a less than smooth one. Even though it can at times be frustrating it is also to be expected as any huge project is an ongoing process of testing and adjusting, testing and adjusting.
One of the adjustments I have made is to forget e-mailing people with offers of help.
To my mind this seemed the most obvious plan of action. Send a charity an e-mail offering free books and then sit back and wait for the enthusiastic and grateful responses to come flooding in.
After all, who doesn’t want something for nothing, right? Well apparently lots of people, because at least 4 out of 5 e-mails I’ve sent out have gone unanswered.
It would seem the sheer intensity and volume of scam e-mails usually starting “Dearly Beloved” and emanating from Nigeria has made people somewhat skeptical of any correspondence that offers something for nothing.
To be fair to John, he has said from the word go that it will come down to personal relationships and so it is proving to be. Now I’m calling the charities and speaking to real people and it’s definitely making a positive difference although I think more face-to-face meetings are needed.
One of the personal relationships came about when John spoke to a lady by the name of Sandy Geroux. Like John, Sandy does a lot of public speaking and she is also involved in a lot of charity work.
When John told her about the Rich and Happy giveaway she jumped at the chance to help us put the books into the right peoples hand.
I got a call from John excitedly saying he had good news and that Sandy wanted 50 books as soon as possible. Ok, that is fairly good news I thought, but come on man I’m not sure it’s worth getting quite so pumped up about as it’s not even a full case.
It seems I misheard him because he’d actually said 750 books and that definitely was something worth getting pumped up about.
Last Friday I loaded the books into my car and set off to the Children’s Advocacy Center for Osceola County in Kissimmee to meet Sandy.
If you’re as unaware as I was to the role of an advocacy center, here is how it is described on their website.
The purpose of a Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) is to provide services to children and non-offending family members that are victims of child sexual and physical abuse. CAC’s use a multi-disciplinary approach coordinating law enforcement, child protective services, prosecution, mental health, medical personnel and victim advocacy to provide the most comprehensive services available so that children are not re-victimized by the very system in place to protect them.
A Children’s Advocacy Center provides a comfortable child friendly atmosphere where the child can feel safe and staff are specially trained to deal with the issues of child victimization.
Prior to the center kids would be taken to a hospital that was ill-equipped to deal with such specific problems and this would often exacerbate an already terrible situation.
Sandy gave me a tour of the facility that was both eye-opening and incredibly sad. If you have ever seen a medical examination table that looks like a polar bear like the one above, you’ll know what I mean. Knowing that the only reason this place exists is because adults are prepared to abuse children didn’t leave me feeling too great.
One of the statistics that Sandy gave me that I found most shocking was that 1 in 4 girls will be either physically or sexually abused before they reach 18 years of age, and 1 in 6 boys.
Most of the money to fund the center comes from fund raising and they like a great many such organizations have been hit hard by the recession as donations have dried up.
The double whammy is that as donations went south, abuse went in the opposite direction. When times are bad and stress is high it seems the victims are often not just the adults, but the kids that get in the way.
It was a bitter sweet day. It was great to help such a worthy cause (and by the way, the real help has come from the hundreds of people that have bought the book, I just delivered them), but it was also sad that they are needed.
Copies will be going to the non-accused guardian to help with education, to the kids that are at the older end of the age range and also some other charities that Sandy is involved in. Hopefully they can help people realize that things can be different, if we believe they can.
We are down to the last 1,000 or so of the first print run and we expect these to be either donated or sold by the end of next month. If you want a first edition copy, go get one now! Or alternatively, if you know a charity that would benefit from receiving a case or more of books, please let us know.
I serve on the Board of the Osceola CAC with Sandy and we are very grateful to you for your generosity and the good that will come from it. Please continue
spreading the word on behalf of the victims of child abuse
Certainly will Marilyn, we aim to help put you out of business.
Have you contacted http://www.roomtoread.org? They build school and libraries in poor communities around the world and always need books. It would be a great way to share your message globally
No I haven’t Katie, but I will now, thanks!
Your blog is heartwarming along with your generosity! Thank you for helping the kids in Osceola County! You are a true hero!
LOL – not sure about being a hero, a lot of people are doing a lot more than we are, but of course we’re delighted to help.
Thank you John and Tim for your book giveaway program. What a great idea! As a CAC Board member, we appreciate the community support and donation.
Your welcome Rachel, and thanks for what you do. If you weren’t running the center in the first place we couldn’t help!