April Auction Benefits Rape Crisis Council

The Rape Crisis Council of Pickens County is preparing for a fundraiser next month, which will benefit their many programs and enable them to continue providing direct assistance to sexual assault victims and their families. 

Their 16^th Annual Silent Auction is slated for 6pm-8pm Friday, April 26 at Baptist Easley Hospital.

“It's really our only fundraiser we do,” said Nicole Hemphill Victims Service Coordinator with the Rape Crisis Council. “We try to spread (proceeds) out as much as we can with our different programs, but a big chunk of it goes to Kamp Kid.”

Kamp Kid is open to all abused children age 4-12 in area foster homes.

The fundraiser helps Rape Crisis Council deal with budget cuts from the state.

“That's the biggest thing that we pay for,” Hemphill said, of the camp.

Tickets for the auction are $10 per person at the door.

“You can come and look all you want but you can't bid until you buy a ticket,” Hemphill said.

“We have some big stuff this year, I'm excited,” she said.

Items up for bid this year include a three-day stay in Reno, Nevada, Disney tickets, a new refrigerator, a gas grill, an American Girl doll, a $500 tool pack from Ryobi and stays in Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Pigeon Forge.

“We're getting something from NASCAR,” said Renee Godfrey.

Hemphill said they hope the auction will raise $20,000 for Rape Crisis Council.

Proceeds will also help RCC's RAD and RAD Kids classes.

“They're self-defense classes for women and children,” Hemphill said. “We provide those for free. We go into elementary schools, day cares. It's a big push that we do. It's in big demand.”

RAD is for women only.

“It is a rape aggression defense,” Godfrey said. “It's specifically geared to teach women how to effectively avoid being raped or how to get away from an aggressor.”

Godfrey said she would like to bring programs to public schools.

“Not just with RAD Kids, but working on some curriculum about sexual abuse and things, to teach prevention, because we don't offer that in our county,” she said. “It's not offered in our public schools at all.”

Rape Crisis Council also offers a program for middle schools called Safe Dates that teaches about dating violence and date rape.

The Rape Crisis Council of Pickens County is a non-profit organization.

“Any programs that we offer are all free,” Godfrey said. “So we depend greatly on donations and our fundraiser.”

Other programs the RCC is involved with include Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.

“They're the nurses that respond with us to any kind of sexual assault,” Hemphill said. “When we go, we could be there up to 6 hours. The SANE nurse is there anywhere from two to four hours after that. If there's an exam or evidence collected, they have to wait until an officer comes and takes it.”

The SANE program is the second most-successful program in the state, according to Brandy Peppers, executive director of Rape Crisis Council of Pickens County.

Rape Crisis Counselors are there with victims “from start to finish,” Hemphill said.

“Until they're allowed to leave (the hospital),” she said. “Through the trial, if gets to that point. We go with them to the police department, the solicitor's office, making sure their rights are taken care of.”

“I think victims forget that they do have right,” Godfrey said. “I think a lot of time, especially with sexual assault, they feel that blame is put on them. And it's not the police officer's fault – they have to investigate aggressively. I think sometimes they come across as 'Are you being honest? Are you being truthful?'

“Our job is to make sure they do understand (their rights), that they are believed, that we're there for them, that what's happened to them doesn't necessarily define them, that they have the power to overcome what's happened,” she continued. “We're there to kind of just hold their hand and support them.

Rape victims deal with a lot of embarrassment, Godfrey said.

“That's something we try to help them get over,” she said. “They shouldn't feel embarrassed, because it wasn't their fault.”

Peppers said that not only do we live in a “blame the victim” culture, we live in a “blame the victim” part of the country as well.

“Unfortunately we deal with a lot of child incest as well,” Peppers said. “They believe it's here only because we live so close to our family, where if you live New York City, your family is hours away, you don't have the ability to see them as much. We deal with a lot of that as well.”

“I heard growing up, the way you dress almost gives people permission to victimize you,” Godfrey said. “And that's so not true. There's a lot of, 'Well, you lead them on.' That's what we fight against. That's what we try to stop.”

Victims often don't want to come forward.

“It's an unending cycle,” Peppers said. “Grandpa did it to Mom, Mom did to a child, child's going to do it to whomever. They think it's normal. For their family it's very normal.”

“That's why we're pushing so hard to get into the schools, to educate them,” Godfrey said. “Because you do have child abusers. You have children right now that abuse other children, on school grounds, within families, because they've been abused themselves.

“If we can get into elementary schools and start teaching them that their body is their body, that they have the right to protect their body at all costs, it prevents abuse spreading,” Godfrey said. “If abuse can be stopped at an early age, then it's more likely to reduce as they become adults.”

That's where the RAD Kids classes come in, Hemphill said.

“Letting them understand that even though they're 5, 6 or however old, they do have a voice, and it's okay to say no and it's okay if you feel bad to speak up,” she said. “They don't get that. Not every parent tells their child that. Parents don't want to believe that we live in a community where things like this can happen.”

“We live in a safe place,” Peppers said. “We live in a great small town where everybody knows each other.”

Hemphill and Godfrey agreed.

“But things still happen,” Godfrey said.

Leaders are often reluctant to discuss the problem. Godfrey recalled a young girl disclosing abuse during a RAD Kids class.

“She disclosed that she had been sexually abused, molested,” Godfrey said. “When I approached the school official about that, she tended to say, 'Well, that girl does make up stories.' And I looked at her and said, 'But by law you are required to report it. You are mandated to report it and if you don't, I will make sure that it is.' I think there is a reluctance to report it. They feel like, 'How many more children are we going to have come forward? How is this going to reflect upon us? How is it going to make the school look?'

“It's not about them,” Godfrey continued. “It's about the children. That's what it all comes down to – it's about the children. I would want my child to feel that they could disclose and be believed. I make sure that my children understand that they can come to me, that they can tell me and that they can be truthful with me and they're going to be believed.”