Spread the love

Contributed

LAKE WACCAMAW – Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope Child Advocacy Center (CAC) will celebrate six years of serving physically and sexually abused children in Columbus and Bladen counties with the Kaleidoscope of Hope Soiree at 5:30 p.m. May 30 at Vineland Station in downtown Whiteville. The fundraiser will include dinner, dancing, a photo booth wall and a program showing the incredible impact of the CAC in the region with speaker Whiteville Chief of Police, Paul Rockenbach.

This fundraiser comes at a crucial time for the growing CAC, which is a program of Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina (BGHNC) and is nationally accredited through the National Children’s Alliance. As funding for the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) could see possible cuts, NC agencies such as child advocacy centers, rape crisis centers and other groups that treat crime victims must seek additional funding resources.

“If Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope was not in Whiteville, there would be less justice for children. It’s as simple as that,” said Marc Murphy, President of Boys & Girls Homes. “This important program has been a game-changer for local law enforcement, the district attorney’s office and area departments of social services in helping children to tell their story safely and quickly take people off the street who harm kids.” Last year, Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope saw more than 200 child victims of sexual or physical abuse at their Whiteville center. The Columbus County DA’s office has repeatedly credited Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope Child Advocacy Center with increasing arrests and convictions of child sex abusers in the three-county area.

While the soiree is a celebration of the unique services at the CAC, this event is also a call to action to raise awareness and funding to keep this program going, Murphy said.

Director of Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope, Danielle Nolan, said this year the CAC is seeing a lot more food insecurity in its families and had to expand its services.

“The child will get what they need when they come to us, but folks don’t know all the additional things we provide for the non-offending caregiver or family members like we send them home

with a food box, gas card, voucher to Food Lion or diapers. We are really filling that gap in services,” she said. “It’s such a rewarding job to provide this for children and families in our community.”

Our title sponsor for the Kaleidoscope of Hope Soiree is Roy Register whose late wife, Carolyn, was a BGHNC board member and the namesake of Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope Child Advocacy Center. Additional area sponsors include International Paper, Chip and Myra Overby, Advanced Pediatrics & Family Care, United Bank, Sea Tow Wrightsville Beach, Lake Waccamaw Lions Club, The News Reporter, Logan Homes and Columbus County Youth & Families Association. To purchase tickets to the soiree, please go to https://boysandgirlshomes.org/event-tickets/

Carolyn’s Kaleidoscope Child Advocacy Center

A program of Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina, the CAC team in Whiteville, N.C. meets with child victims and non-offending caregivers to help heal children from the traumas of sexual and physical abuse, and to increase prosecution of offenders. The center mainly serves children in Columbus, Bladen and Robeson counties.

Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina

Headquartered in Lake Waccamaw, NC since 1954, Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina has served more than 7,500 children as a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 agency. Its mission is to provide a comprehensive array of services for children and youth who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or other family challenges. BGHNC offers adoption, family and therapeutic foster care, Success Coach services to prevent children from coming into foster care, and free children’s therapy, as well as residential care on the campus at Lake Waccamaw. The campus features a SACS-accredited charter school with a middle and high school curriculum, vocational education, recreation facilities, farm, equine therapy and a chapel. BGHNC is nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation. To learn more, please visit https://boysandgirlshomes.org/