Police give back through game 11/14/2008 1:40 AM By KAREN DAILY Staff writer
Law enforcement officers will be putting down their badges Sunday afternoon and picking up their softball gloves for charity to take each other on to raise money for the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken County.
Deputies with Aiken County Sheriff's Office, Aiken Public Safety officers, North Augusta Public Safety officers and S.C. state troopers will battle it out on the field Sunday at 1 p.m. at Citizens Park II.
Each department is trying to score the most runs for bragging rights and the most donations for the children treated at the facility.
The game was played for the first time in 2006 and was a huge success, said Jeremy Hembree, an officer with Aiken Public Safety. That year the officers with Aiken Public Safety narrowly inched out the sheriff's office deputies for the victory, but the deputies had bragging rights for the most money raised.
This year the fundraising game has expanded to include teams from North Augusta Public Safety and the S.C. Highway Patrol.
Entry to the game is free, but the officers will be asking for donations for the advocacy center.
Anne Laver, the advocacy center's program coordinator, said the ties between the children treated at the center and the officers is a close one.
Local law enforcement has always been very supportive of the child advocacy center, she added.
"It means so much to us that they are willing to come out and in support of the advocacy center," she said. "They care so much."
The advocacy center provides a safe and child-friendly facility where children receive medical and forensic evaluations without having to leave the community.
Before March 2006, area children were shuffled around the state for many of the evaluations.
The advocacy allows a holistic way to treat the children, Laver has said.
"Before we didn't have any universal place," she said. "This center can support the whole process."
Previously children were interviewed at the police station, were ushered to an interview at the Department of Social Services and then taken to the hospital for a medical evaluation.
Local child advocates have been forced to take children to Charleston or Columbia for extensive medical exams and then forced to wait in line while the children from those areas were served first.
According to statistics by the S.C. Children's Advocacy Medical Response System, the average cost of a medical evaluation for an abused or neglected child is $1,380, but the average reimbursement for the service is $540.
Each agency is accepting donations to be made out to the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken.
Checks can be made in the name of any agency and can be sent to the CAC of Aiken County at 235 Barnwell Ave., Aiken, SC 29801.
Donations are being taken for entry to the game.
For more information about the advocacy center, call 644-5100.
Contact Karen Daily at kdaily@aikenstandard.com.
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