A boy clutches a toy truck as he stands in front of a house engulfed in flames. A girl is grasping a teddy bear as a real grizzly bear growls right behind her. Another boy seems oblivious to the fact that he's standing right in the path of an impending freight train.
These are the images that the public can now expect to see as part of the new media campaign by Little Warriors. The Edmonton-based agency is a national leader in adult education on the awareness, prevention and treatment for victims of child sexual abuse. It recently started offering its Stewards of Children prevention program for adults in St. Albert and Morinville.
Designed for dramatic effect, the ads question why many people would save kids in some situations of immediate danger but hesitate when sexual abuse is the issue.
"You don't do it with balloons and rainbows," says Glori Meldrum, founder of Little Warriors. "The reason the campaign is so solid and impactful and bold is because that's what people are going to respond to. It's not a happy subject."
The print campaign will appear in newspapers and on buses and transit stops. The TV and radio components will tackle the subject from a different direction; using the thoughts of a child sexual abuser.
"She trusts me … but she shouldn't," a man's voice says. "Something is dangerous with me. I should be locked in a cage. What can I say? I like kids."
Then a narrator comes on and says, "Child sexual abuse preys on kids every day. What are you going to do?"
Meldrum explains that the general public needs to step up and give more recognition to the damage caused by this one problem. She quotes statistics that one in three girls and one in six boys were victims of child sexual abuse.
"It's horrible. We really want to draw attention to how this really hurts kids. This is a massive problem. We need help. The public needs to be involved in a much greater way."
The dream ranch with a major donation
During the same news conference, Meldrum also made an announcement about a major donation by a prominent Edmonton businessman. She said that it has always been her dream to start a treatment facility for children who have experienced sexual abuse, but that the $3.1 million needed was always out of reach for the not-for-profit Little Warriors.
That dream got a $600,000 kick-start, thanks to Bart Yachimec, the owner of several prominent auto dealerships under the Yachimec Auto Group banner. He is already familiar with signing large cheques through his support of the Stollery Children's Hospital, and he knew that there were other children's charities out there that needed help too.
"What we're doing, to me, is not a lot, but I've seen it work." he says. "I really sense and feel … it's going to happen all over again. We're going to have a very successful ranch that's going to treat these children, help them, and we're going to make a very large impact across Canada."
The Yachimec donation will come in $200,000 segments each year for three years.
Theo Fleury lunch
To help spread the message, Little Warriors is putting on the Be Brave Luncheon with special guest speaker Theo Fleury. He will discuss his own story of being sexually abused in a presentation that will be called Don't Quit Before the Miracle.
Tickets for the event are $150. Little Warriors hopes to raise $400,000 to help continue to build up its coffers for the treatment facility it says would be the first of its kind in Canada.
It starts at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, May 28 in Hall D of the Shaw Conference Centre, 9797 Jasper Avenue.
Members of the public can call 780-447-1343 or visit www.littlewarriors.ca to find out more information about the organization or the luncheon.
