By Kellen Olshefski and Tyler Lamb
Elkhorn Independent Staff
The Walworth County Alliance for Children (WCAC) held its annual luncheon Sept. 26 to celebrate the hard work of volunteers and donors who have contributed to the year’s accomplishments.
Held at Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, the event brought together individuals from all over Walworth County who share a common cause; protecting the county’s children.
Through silent auctions, raffles and donations, the non-profit group collected funds for the Treehouse Project, the county’s child advocacy center, to help offset various costs and the mortgage of the alliance’s newly built home.
Speakers at the event included familiar community members such as Attorney Josh Grube, Paula Hocking, WCAC Director and forensic interviewer, and Nancy Neshek, WCAC chair. In addition, nationally known former sexual abuse victim and the driving force behind Erin’s Law, Erin Merryn, culminated the day as the event’s keynote speaker.
Bruce Kudick
For Bruce Kudick, helping the children in the Walworth County area has been a long-standing tradition.
Having donated more than $30,000 during the past decade, Kudick was recognized at this year’s WCAC luncheon for his many contributions, including an astonishing $10,000 this year alone.
Kudick, the owner of the now closed Two Seasons Bowl in Elkhorn, has hosted his staple Buffett Bash for more than a decade, and began using the event as an opportunity to not just party, but party with a purpose, donating proceeds towards the WCAC.
This year’s Buffett Bash, according to Kudick, was the best turnout he’s ever had, leading to his largest donation to the WCAC.
For Kudick, raising money for the advocacy center has stood at the forefront in his mind because of the children.
Before the completion of the advocacy center, Kudick said he had a case in which a close friend’s child was sexually abused.
In addition, another friend’s child was recently physically abused, showing Kudick firsthand the true power of the advocacy center.
“The mother of the child came to me and was overwhelmed by how they were treated, how it was handled … just a fantastic experience for someone who had to go through this,” he said. “She told me it was absolutely the best way to handle a child who’s been abused.”
Having donated time and money to the construction of the WCAC Tree House, Kudick said a walkthrough of the building and process by Paula Hocking for the first time was an emotional experience.
“To know that this is the care they’re going to give a child so they don’t have to necessarily go to court,” he said. “It was overwhelming for me because of how much they care about the kids.”
Kudick said the building, built solely to be a welcoming and comforting environment for children to open up about abuse and neglect, is truly a proud thing to be a part of.
According to Kudick, community education on topics such as sexual abuse is key in continuing to fund the alliance so it can provide its services to area children.
Kudick noted the importance of bringing speakers such as Erin Merryn to area schools, PTAs, school boards and city, village and town boards to continue to educate the community.
“I hope and pray this will continue in some way or another,” he said. “We have to somehow educate the public, the families.”
Though with the closing of Two Seasons Bowl, this year marked Kudick’s final Buffett Bash, he said if another community member would be interested in hosting it or any other fundraiser he would be more than happy to aid them in anyway possible.
“It just amazes me that maybe we can help stop this or stop the people that are doing this,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that can help, it doesn’t take much.”
As for the future, Kudick is currently attempting to set up a Christmas dinner show with musician John Patti as a fundraiser. While nothing is set in stone, he is hoping to host the fundraiser over the weekend before Christmas at Grand Geneva Resort.
With the multitude of items the advocacy center can use, such as paper and stuffed animals, Kudick encourages community members with questions or those interested in helping to leave a message on his home phone, (262) 742-4690, or send him an email at [email protected].
“It’s an important thing for me and wherever I am I’ll try to do something for them,” he said. “I didn’t do it for the notoriety … I do it because I want to help.”
Gene Decker
As part of last week’s luncheon, Town of Geneva resident Gene Decker received the WCAC’s Volunteer of the Year award for his support and commitment to the advocacy center.
According to Hocking, Decker received the award as a result of his dedication, as well as his work on the facility’s tree house.
“Gene volunteers from his heart,” Hocking said. “He does it because he cares about children. We choose Gene because he has made the tree house a special place for kids. The playground speaks for that.”
For his part, Decker said he felt the award was “undeserved.”
“It was undeserved,” he said. “I’ve put in a lot of work this year with the WCAC’s landscaping issues, putting in 100-hour weeks, but I’m just basically the guy who mows the lawn. The people who thought of the facility – which was almost 20 years ago – and raised the funds to make it go, those are the people who deserve the credit. I’m a long way down on the totem pole for people who deserve the award.”
Decker, an active member of the Town of Geneva board, became involved with the WCAC via a previous relationship with Margaret Downing. Downing serves as director with the WCAC.
“I worked for 35 years in business for Morton Salt, and retired in 2004,” he said. “I was vice president of operations for the last 13 years before I retired. I was responsible for 21 plants in North America, as well as 3,000 union employees.
“The first thing I got involved with, after I retired, was with the Lake Como Beach Property Owners Association. So I serve on the town board and on the property owners association, and I’m bored out of my mind,” he chuckled. “When I first got involved with the town, Margaret Downing was a part-time administrator for the Town of Geneva. Margaret got in my ear about needing some help, and I was available.”
Beyond the handy work provided to the WCAC, Decker also donates sizeable financial contributions to the advocacy center.
“I get paid $5,000 for being on the town board, and I donate that check to the WCAC,” he said. “I just buy a lot of little things and donate it, like shelving and garden hoses.”
In closing, Decker said continued volunteer work with the WCAC is a big part of his future plans.
“I spend 20 to 25 hours out there now,” he said. “I will continue to do what I do until I’m no longer able to. There is no question about that.”
Erin Merryn
For Erin Merryn of Schaumburg, Ill., 28, being an advocate of sexual abuse awareness has been a predominate part of her life over the past few years; because she lived through it.
Merryn was repeatedly sexually abused, raped and sodomized by a childhood friend’s uncle, repeatedly told he would hurt her if she told, from the age of six until eight when her family moved.
Thinking she had finally escaped the endless sexual abuse, Merryn, the keynote speaker at the Sept. 26 luncheon, was once again sexually abused by a cousin beginning at the age of 11 at a family home in Lake Geneva. After several years of abuse and finding out her sister was also being abused, the two opened up to their parents in search of help and support.
Campaigning nationally for increased education and protections as the driving force behind Erin’s Law, Merryn has taken her life experiences and is now using them to try and give children the voice she never had as a child.
Merryn said she’s become an advocate for advocacy centers such as the WCAC as children become incredibly traumatized by having to repeatedly recount their stories, leading children to not disclose or be put in a threatening environment.
“Kids often think police departments are where the bad people go,” she said. “In a children’s advocacy center they’re in a child friendly environment and it’s video-taped so they never have to repeat their testimony again.”
According to Merryn, while sexual abuse is hard enough on a child, the aftermath can be far worse.
“Just because the abuse ends doesn’t mean the past disappears,” she said. “The memories, the trauma, all of that which goes with it continues to haunt a kid.”
According to Merryn, without the proper help, many kids go down destructive paths before anyone knows, resorting to eating disorders, behavior problems, self-injury, drug abuse and promiscuity.
Merryn said the law she’s been pushing focuses heavily on educating children on sexual awareness, something unfortunately not pushed as hard as tornado and lockdown drills.
“You do tell someone, you will be believed, this isn’t your fault, all these important things that need to be told to kids,” she said.
Merryn said she’s concerned schools have taken the time for bullying and lockdowns, yet this “silent epidemic” is something society continues to fail to bring into the schools and educate children on.
With a far greater number of children being sexually abused than those being diagnosed with cancer or autism, Merryn said while parents are often worried about strangers, they often overlook the fact it can happen to any child, and in approximately 90 percent of all cases the predator is someone the victim knows.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s not secluded to a certain type of people,” she said.
Merryn said she has attempted to introduce the law in Wisconsin but neither the state senate nor house has responded to her requests.
“Considering my abuse with my cousin began in Wisconsin, it saddens me that I’ve mentioned that to legislators and they continue to ignore it.”
Merryn encourages Wisconsin residents to contact legislators about the law, of which more information can be found at erinslaw.org.
As for those who have been through the trauma of sexual abuse, Merryn noted the importance of forgiveness and offered the following advice:
“If this has happened to you and you haven’t told anyone, now is the time to do it. No matter what you’ve been told, somebody will believe you and if the first person doubts you, keep talking … You can’t change the past, so change something you can; the future.”
