Lebanon
The Lebanon Police Department event raised about $900 for the Child Advocacy Center of Grafton and Sullivan Counties at the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The police department is one of many local organizations that work with the center to help victims and their families.
About 60 children and adults eager for some half-court competition spent the sunny morning in the third floor gym, playing fast-paced 12-minute games.
With basketball season getting underway at local schools, the timing seemed to work well for the student athletes, who came from across the Upper Valley.
“It’s a nice way to get re-acclimated,” said Vicki McCorkle, a Hanover resident whose daughter Allie McCorkle played in the double elimination tournament.
And the setting was familiar territory for the students, many of whom take part in the CCBA-based Longhorns Basketball Club or other local programs.
Now in seventh grade, Allie started playing the sport as a kindergartner. “This gym is like our home,” McCorkle said.
Cathy Brittis, the Child Advocacy Center’s program manager, called the tournament “very, very touching.
“We were really just really appreciative that the police department wanted to do this for our program and the kids in our community whose lives are impacted by abuse,” said Brittis, who staffed the concession stand that morning. “They do go above and beyond all the time for us. This is just another example of how they respect the work we do together … to ensure kids whose lives are affected by abuse are getting the best care and services they can.”
Throughout the morning, people asked Brittis about the center, which has sites in downtown Lebanon, Claremont and Littleton, N.H. Its services — all free — include forensic interviews, case coordination, referrals for follow-up services, outreach and prevention, and professional education.
Between Grafton and Sullivan counties, the center works with about 300 children a year, most of whom have been severely physically abused, sexually abused or witnessed violence. But those are just the cases they are able to see, Brittis said in a phone interview. “We have to have a non-offending caregiver.”
The center is “philanthropically funded,” she said. In fiscal year 2015, 66 percent of its funding came from fundraising and philanthropy, and 34 percent from grants.
In a phone interview, Lebanon Police Chief Richard Mello said the work of the Child Advocacy Center represents a “paradigm shift.”
When it comes to traumatic incidents, such as assault and sexual assault, interviewing children is “a very fragile process,” he said. Years ago, children were interviewed by police officers or detectives, sometimes several times.
Yet thanks to organizations such as the Child Advocacy Center, that’s changed.
Staff members are specially trained to forensically interview young children who have been victims of, or witnessed serious crimes, in a single interview, Mello said.
“Certainly we are over there more than we’d like to be,” he said. But the Child Advocacy Center has great people, resources and support staff, “which allows us to go over there and take a team approach to helping the children.”
Lebanon Police Lt. Matt Isham, one of the organizers, said he was thankful to everyone who came out for Sunday’s event. “It was a good turnout for our first time.”
Among the 15 teams was one fielded by the police department that included Mello, Detective Callie Barrett, and officers Garrett Hubert and Jeff Hunold. Lebanon Capt. Tim Cohen, a DJ, provided the soundtrack.
In addition to police department employees and Child Advocacy Center staff members, other local residents also volunteered their time to help out. Community businesses pitched in, too, donating money and refreshments for the event, which the CCBA hosted, Isham said in a phone interview.
Throughout the 3½-hour long tournament, the sidelines remained crowded with parents, some just watching, others also playing.
Lebanon resident Mike Thornton and his daughter, sixth-grader Mikayla Thornton, both took to the courts.
“She’s a little motor,” Thornton said fondly, as Mikayla and her teammates warmed up, wearing their maroon Longhorns jerseys. “Any chance to play basketball.”
And it’s for a good cause, he said. “That’s what we’re here for. The principle behind it.”
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.