Press Release
August 16th, 2013
University of Wisconsin donates $94,000 to Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center
Safe Harbor Child Advocacy Center learned last Thursday, August 8, 2013 that it will be the recipient of a substantial donation by designation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Safe Harbor is a nonprofit agency that serves child abuse victims and their families in Dane and surrounding counties. Safe Harbor partners with law enforcement, human services agencies and District Attorneys’ offices to make child abuse investigations less traumatic to children and to hold child abusers accountable.
The UW Athletic Department has chosen Safe Harbor CAC and the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County as joint recipients, dividing the funds equally between the two charities. As a consequence, Safe Harbor will receive more than $94,000 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The funds for this gift originate from sanctions imposed by the Big Ten Conference on Pennsylvania State University in connection with the 2012 conviction of its former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, for multiple counts of child sexual abuse. As part of those penalties, the Big Ten Conference disqualified Penn State and its Athletic Department from receiving any proceeds from conference bowl game payouts for five years. Under conference policy, member institutions usually share equally in all such revenues. The Big Ten Conference decided, instead, to divide the annual payment that would normally go to Penn State equally among other conference members, and has requested that each member institution donate these funds to charities in its community.
Safe Harbor is grateful for the donation from the UW, and asks the public to remember the sad circumstances that made this gift possible. The funds will give Safe Harbor an opportunity to educate our community about the severity of child abuse, and to continue providing its important services to victimized children and their families.
For additional information, please contact Lois McDonald at Safe Harbor (608 661-9787); see also http://www.safeharborhelpskids.org/.
