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Innocence Mission Holding First Major Event Dec. 4
posted: November 28th, 2009 06:41 am |
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The Innocence Mission, founded early this year by a victim of childhood sexual abuse, will host its first annual World of Wonderment party next month.
The goal of the party is not only to honor people who have helped other victims or to raise money, but also to create an atmosphere that evokes a childlike sense of amazement.
“I wanted adults to remember that sense of wonderment,” said Elaina Kroll, founder of the Innocence Mission. “Because once a child experiences abuse, that moment is gone.”
Kroll, who lives in Laguna Beach, knows firsthand about childhood abuse. As a teen-ager, her choir director abused her for years before she moved to the East Coast for college. As an adult, she sued her abuser and won a settlement, which she used as seed money for The Innocence Mission organization. Earlier this year, the man pleaded guilty to molestation.
“I got a guilty verdict,” she said. “I also realized that very few people get the opportunities I have.”
The Innocence Mission’s goals are to raise awareness so that victims feel safe in reporting abuse, to create a Survivors Speakers Bureau and to “influence the influencers” by talking to fashion designers, for example, who create provocative clothing for children.
Innocence Mission board member Renee Hoffman Heath, of Corona del Mar, said the initial goal is to educate, inform and force into the open the topic of childhood sexual abuse.
“Breast cancer used to be a taboo subject,” she said. “Now it’s not. We want to create the same openness.”
Kroll agreed. “This is a call to the community right now,” she said. “Come stand together with us.”
The World of Wonderment party will be held at 6 p.m. Friday Dec. 4 at the Grand Californian Hotel. Tickets cost $125 apiece or $200 for V.I.P. For more information, call (866) 825-8251.
The event will feature the Royal Crown Revue and a silent auction. They group also will honor two Bay Area police officers who helped kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard, and local publisher and author William Lobdell, who wrote a book about religion that examined the Catholic church and childhood sexual abuse.
