ROOFSIT 2011 FOR CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION

15^th annual event hopes to raise community awareness

June 20-24, 2011, South Bend  - Beginning Monday, June 20 at 6am, for the 15th consecutive year U93, WNDV-FM will donate an entire week of on air time to help educate the community and raise donations for educational and preventive programs in the Michiana area. Rob and AJ of the U93 Morning Crew will live and broadcast live from Martin’s Supermarket roof at State Road 23 and Ironwood for the entire week.

Along with on-site donations and local business contributions, there are many special events to raise money during the week. They include:

For 15 years, the morning DJs at U93 radio station have donated their time to help victims of child abuse. For the third year Prevent Child Abuse St Joseph County has partnered with Artistic Media and Martin’s Supermarket to coordinate the event.

“We head up to the rooftop at Martin’s at 6am on Monday, and we don’t come back down until Friday afternoon. We live, eat, sleep and work up there – rain or shine,” says AJ Seliga, one half of The U93 Morning Crew.

Over the past 15 years the event has raised almost two million dollars and annually reaches more than 25% of the St. Joseph County population with a message that raises awareness of the cause, educates about prevention methods and shines a light on programs throughout the area working to serve children and families.

“We stay on the air all day,” says Rob Sparks, the other half of The U93 Morning Crew. “We share letters, emails, phone calls and personal interviews with survivors of abuse. It’s really heart breaking to hear how lives have been affected. These kids, their physical scars can heal, but internally they carry the fear and inability to trust with them into adulthood.”

Radio listeners are just as affected as Rob and AJ are. Donations pour in to help educate the community and provide counseling services for victims and survivors.

“We’ve been able to fund programming designed to teach body safety to children from pre-school to third grade. The hope is by bringing this message to children early we can prevent sexual abuse throughout their childhood. The children are empowered to say no and taught to speak to a trusted adult. Through funding received from RoofSit, this program was provided to more than 1700 local children during the 2009-2010 school year,” Rob explains.

AJ continues, “Another grant provides parenting instructions for mothers who had experienced generational child abuse or were lacking in parenting skills. This program reached more than 700 mothers. We also fund a four week course on discipline without violence. These services are provided free of charge due to funding sources like RoofSit.”

“Prevention programs work,” explains Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County program director Jennifer Pickering. “Indiana has seen a decrease in deaths from abuse over the past two years. But there’s still a lot of work to be done with over 24,808 substantiated reports of abuse in Indiana in one year.  Programs like Roofsit help.”

We are asking for your support to help generate the much needed community awareness to stop child abuse in Michiana.  To schedule an interview with a counselor, nurse, doctor, lawyer or agency representative, please contact Jennifer Pickering, Program Director at Prevent Child Abuse St. Joseph County.

To date Roofsit has raised over 1.6 million dollars to aid in the fight against child abuse.  All monies raised stay within the U93 listening area.

Help be a part of the solution.  It shouldn’t hurt to be a child.