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The Paper | Thursday, July 18, 2013
Primal Rush Obstacle Course Race is new Tree House fundraising event By LEANNE AKIN
lakin@clickthepaper.com
The Tree House, the children’s advocacy center serving, Barrow, Banks and Jackson counties is taking on a new fundraiser for this fall – a Primal Rush Obstacle Course Race (OCR) at Crow’s Lake. Walton Development & Management (USA) is the presenting sponsor. Individuals and teams will traverse a 4-mile course of water, dirt, mud and obstacles plus an optional swim to finish it up. Individuals will race to the finish as they crawl, climb, run and swim their way to the gritty end. Prizes will be given for best costumes and best team name. You can sign up as an individual runner or under a team name with all participants being timed individually. Teams will race in the same heat. T-shirts will be provided to participants. The individual competitive heat begins at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24, and there will be a spectator and festival area set up for fans with great music, booths and food all day. Plenty of activities are planned for kids including the Primal Primary Run for ages 6-12 years and a jumpy arena. “We chose an obstacle course race because we wanted it keep with the race day theme, wanted it to be fun and relevant,” said Lee. “These types of races are extremely popular right now and well attended.” The Crow’s Lake venue will both competitive and fun, according to Lee. Chance Bentley, who is chairing this year’s summer fundraiser, says, “For the past seven years, The Tree House has had the Turtle Trek at Crow’s Lake which was a great festival for everyone, especially for families and children. However, over the last several years, interest seems to have waned a bit and the board felt that perhaps this particular event had run its course and it was time for a change. “With the huge popularity of obstacle course races and mud runs, it seemed like the perfect time to breathe new life into our summer fundraiser and make a change,” said Bentley. “The board unanimously voted for The Primal Rush Obstacle Course Race to be our new event and Tom Crow of Crow’s Lake has been on board from the beginning to help The Tree House make this a successful event.” But some of the favored aspects of Turtle Trek will remain. “We will still have the festival with great food, music and booths for everyone including an area for the kids to play,” said Bentley. The festival will feature lots of different types of vendors, and some of the kids’ vendors will provide free kids’ activities. The race will be going on throughout the day in waves, beginning at 8 a.m. with the children’s run, the Primal Rush Primary. Kids must be 6-12 years old for that run and 13 years of age or older for the Primal Rush OCR which gets under way midmorning. According to Bentley, Crow’s Lake conveniently located off Interstate 85, is very easy to get to from all directions. “It is a beautiful piece of property with a view of one of the lakes and plenty
of grounds for the festival where we will have great food, music, booths and stuff for the kids to do,” said Bentley. “As far as the racers themselves, they should expect about 14 obstacles on a challenging 4-mile course, using many natural elements on the property including dirt mountains, log carries, trudging through the mucky lake and many more,” said Bentley. “Stevie Power from Power Thru and his design partner Todd McCain have designed this course to challenge the veteran racers as well as make it fun for the ‘newbies’ to this kind of racing,” said Bentley. “They are also designing the kids’ obstacle race which will be about a mile long.” According to Lee, the Crow’s Lake property has many natural obstacles the designers are incorporating, “and it’s right here in our own community,” she said. “We will need a couple hundred volunteers on the day of the race if anyone would like to participate in that capacity they can contact The Tree House directly or me at chancebentley@ windstream.net,” said Bentley. “We are still taking sponsorships and now is a great time to get on board to take advantage of all of the advertising our sponsors will be getting through this event,. “We will need many volunteers to pull this event off and are also still securing vendors. People can call the Tree House if they want to volunteer or be a vendor,” said Lee. The Tree House relies on Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding and grant funding as well as community support, and the Rotary Club of Braselton recently made a $1,000 donation to The Tree House from funds raised through the club’s annual Run the Vineyard 5K, which is set for Aug. 17. Lee spoke to Braselton Rotarians about the child advocacy movement which changed in the 1980s to put greater emphasis on better coordination between law enforcement, the district attorney’s office and other agencies, including the education and medical community, so that a child who was the victim of abuse and neglect, especially sexual abuse, did not have to retell their victimization to more than a dozen people. According to Lee, instead of having to retell their experience multiple times, in a sense reliving it each time thus hampering their ability to deal with it, child advo-
cacy centers became a place where the child could feel more at ease sharing their story with a trained professional in a videotaped forensic interview which would be witnessed by law enforcement and prosecutors. Unfortunately, the statistics show that one in four females and one in six boys will be victims of abuse and the average victim is 9 for females and between 6-9 for boys. In 90 percent of the cases, the child is victimized by someone they love and/or trust. Lee said a recent case involved a mother’s boyfriend who had been taking advantage of the child for six months. When people ask, won’t children lie, Lee tells them that in her experience, most children will attempt to deny the abuse occurred. The Tree House has been selected to be a part of a year-long learning collaborative with Duke University so victims not only receive free counseling they are receiving the very best treatment available, said Lee. A trauma-focused model is utilized, so The Tree House also works with children who have had other traumatic situations impact their lives such as watching the death of a family member, losing a family member to a house fire or watching drug transactions go bad. The economic downturn had a negative impact on families as the 2010 caseload of The Tree House shows. There were 309 child sexual abuse cases that year, as well as 78 child physical abuse situations and 54 domestic violence cases. In 2012, Lee said The Tree House was involved with 220 child sexual abuse situations and 55 child physical abuse cases while domestic violence was up to 76 cases. Lee said domestic violence was “through the roof” in 2009. Another phenomenon is also of concern, Lee said, with people, including children, having round-theclock access to pornography through the Internet, she says young teens are acting out on younger children. She said some exploration is a part of a child’s natural curiosity but some of the acting out is being prompted by young people with information they don’t know what to do with, and bad things are resulting. Now located in the former location of Highland House in Winder, The Tree House is debt-free, however, equipment is needed so that the volunteer Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) who will volunteer to conduct exams at The Tree House, rather
Jackson EMC Jefferson District Manager Scott Martin and Jackson EMC Foundation board member Lisa Maloof (far left) present a $15,000 Foundation grant check to The Tree House’s Child Services Program Manager Jason Simpson, Executive Director Becky Lee, Tree House board member and Treasurer Gloria Foley and UGA Social Work Intern Cierra Schoonover. Grant funds will be used to fund the Family Services Supervised Visitation Program that helps reunite children in foster care with their families. LeAnne Akin The Paper
Jim Joedecke, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Braselton, recently presented a check for $1,000 ot Becky Lee of The Tree House. The club’s Run the Vineyard 5K on Aug. 17 raises funds for community efforts. age of court fines and from foundations, such as the Jackson EMC Operation Roundup. A satellite office in Commerce is opening to better serve the Piedmont Judicial Circuit. “Our new location in Commerce will make services so much for assessable to families who live in northern Jackson County and Banks County,” said Lee. “Currently, some of these families travel more than an hour to get to us. Not only will it help families that we serve, but it will also help law enforcement having us closer to them so they aren’t traveling as far. We really think this location will allow families in this area easier access to services.” Peace Place will also be partnering with The Tree House at the satellite location which is in the same former shopping center where Lanier Technical College
than the victim having to go to and an Athens hospital. Last year, 44 medical exams were conducted. The Tree House conducted 320 forensic interviews and provided 14 forensic evaluations last year and conducted 672 individual counseling sessions as well as 83 group counseling sessions. A total of 334 cases of criminal justice support were logged. The Tree House also works to put families back together with supervised visitations, home education and other family services. Sixty-eight families and 106 children were served last year. Out of those 106 children, 58 were reunited with their family. A total of 898 supervised visits were overseen by The Tree House. Providing assistance to families, there were 382 home visits with staff working to strengthen 94 families. The Tree House also gets funding through a percent-
has its Commerce campus. “We are really excited to say that Peace Place will be partnering with us in Commerce,” said Lee. The Tree House has a $280,000 budget, and staffers, board members and volunteers raise nearly $40,000 with the spring live and silent auction fundraiser. The Obstacle Course Race will feature 14 obstacles with the prize going to “he who has the most bruises,” Lee jokes. “Becky and her staff are amazing,” said Bentley. “As a nonprofit, they have had to become leaner in these economic times and they have risen to the occasion to still provide The Tree House families with the care and programs they need.” Bentley is serving a third year on the board for The Tree House. “I was asked to come on board at a time when I was looking to get more involved in my community,” said Bentley. “It has been such a pleasure working with all of the board members. They are truly dedicated to making sure The Tree House is able to continue their work helping children and their families.” To register to participate in the Primal Rush OCR, visit www.active.com. Registration is now $68 per person for the OCR and $15 for the kids’ Primal Primary Run. For more information, contact christina@thetreehouseinc.org or becky@ thetreehouseinc.org or call 770-868-1900.
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