Adverse childhood experiences
(trauma) are the single greatest
unaddressed public health threat
facing our nation today.
– Dr. Robert Block
MAY 2018 | SARASOTA SCENE 63
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH READING THIS ARTICLE, another
60 cases of child abuse will have been reported in the
United States. That is outrageous. Any number but zero
is too many in a civilized and forward-thinking society.
And zero is the only acceptable outcome for Graci and Dennis
McGillicuddy, a giving and loving couple who have devoted
many of their years to breaking the cycle of child abuse. It was the
McGillicuddys’ passion, financial support and tenacity that built the
Child Protection Center in 2010 - a vital organization (on Orange
Avenue in Sarasota) that aids in the prevention, intervention and
treatment of child abuse.
While the agency addresses many important and immediate needs
relating to child abuse, the McGillicuddys realized that traumatized
children have another need: a place where they feel loved and
nurtured, a fostering place where they will feel safe, where the
effects of their trauma will fade, and where compassion and new
scientific treatments will shine a light on their lives.
For Graci and Dennis, they choose not to fill their golden years
with the carefree days they’ve earned and deserve. Instead, they
choose to spend every day fighting for kids. Rest is not an option;
they are laser-focused on building a campus of hope and healing,
a campus that will become a foster care model for the rest of our
country, a campus called the All Star Children’s Center. And they
need your help.
The campus will go back in time and share loving and nurturing
principles with children who either experienced these vitally
important formative principles for only a short time or who never
knew them at all. It will also turn the clock ahead by utilizing the
latest science and technology to break this heartbreaking cycle of
“
i”
on the town