Abuse center celebrates 26 years of service
By COURTNEY CROWDER
Before their 18th birthday, one in every three girls and one in every five boys will be sexual abused.
That statistic is boldly located on the Web site of the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center in Gurnee, which has been serving the Lake County community for 26 years.
On June 19, the Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center, known as the Z Center for short, held its annual Women Helping Women lunch and silent auction. The lunch was hosted by Melissa Forman, the morning drive DJ for WLIT-FM, and included speeches by rape survivors Zrinka Allen and Katie Hnida.
The Z Center held the luncheon in order to raise money for the many services that it provides and to thank those who have donated over the past year. Almost everything at the event; from the food to the auction items to the centerpieces were totally donated.
Melissa Forman started off the speaker program by telling a story about her old boss.
“Rich, my old boss, had this sign that just had the letters DTBG on it,” Forman said. “I would walk past it and wonder what it meant and finally one day I asked Rich. He said that it meant dare to be great and that it was a reminder for his employees to make each and every day matter.”
Forman went on to connect this story to the luncheon event itself.
“I think that all of you in this room right now are daring to be great,” Forman said. “Even in a poor economy, all of you are taking time and spending the money to help out the Center and fill-up this tent.”
Torrie Flink, the Executive Director of the Zacharias Center, spoke quickly before the other two speakers graced the stage. Her news was grim.
“I got a phone call this morning and our budget will be cut by 75 percent for the upcoming fiscal year,” Flink said. “We are going to suffer. Victims of rape and incest will suffer, the children we work with will suffer, the amount of criminals we put behind bars will suffer and the schools will try to educate will suffer. We are all going to suffer.”
The intensity of the emotions involved in the event continued when Katie Hnida, the first woman to ever play football in a division one football game, took the stage.
Hnida told the story of her first year at the University of Colorado where she experienced harassment and was raped by a fellow team member.
Right after the rape, Hnida left the University but kept the details of her horrifying experience to herself. That was, until two other girls at the University came forward with allegations that they had been raped too.
When the University tried to hide and negate the other girl’s allegations, Hnida finally told the real story of her departure. It was hard, but telling her story has allowed her to come to terms with what happened to her – as much as is possible.
“I have a hole in my heart that will never be filled,” Hnida said. “But that’s okay because by doing things like this and sharing my story, my heart only continues to get bigger.”
The passion of the team at the event and at the Zacharias Center in general made a very positive impression on Hnida.
“This event was just amazing,” Hnida said. “I can’t get over how the energy is here, it is phenomenal.”
Hnida wasn’t the only one impressed with the Z Center’s spirit, emcee and Lake County resident Forman also found the team to be passionate and professional.
“If you walk into the Center you just cant help but want to be involved in their mission,” Forman said. “I would definitely host this event again. In a heartbeat. Sign me up.”
The first speaker, Zrinka Allen, who also works as a medical and hotline volunteer at the Center, believes that the team at the Z Center helps change survivors lives.
“The work that Torrie and her dream team do is life-changing work’” Allen said. “I wish I knew you when I was effected by sexual abuse, but I am so glad that I know you now.”
Flink believed that the event went down without a hitch and got the message that help is needed to those in attendance.
“The event was successful,” Flink said. “This is my favorite event. I love this event because we invite people into our home [the Z Center] and show them what we do.”
While this luncheon was a great introduction for people to the Z Center and was profitable, the Center is still in financial trouble.
“Send a check or donate your time, because what goes around comes around,” Flink said. “Actions are important, so stand for something now and help us to end sexual violence.”
