64 SARASOTA SCENE | MAY 2018
on the town
cars?” As Graci speaks these words from a place deep in her
soul, you can feel her pain for these children, so real and so raw.
“And not only that, try to imagine that in the coming days your
future is uncertain. You might have a safe place to live or you
might not. Getting enough to eat and having decent clean
clothes to wear to school becomes an issue, and that should
not be an issue for any child.”
“Finally, after all that trauma,” Graci pauses, “After all that, can
you imagine that nobody even asks you about what happened
to you on that night and other nights? Can you imagine that?”
It is a scenario that has been played out countless times in
America, and it’s a scenario that’s playing out every minute
of every day.
Both Graci and Dennis know all too well the impact of
non-action, the influence of inadequate treatment, and the
importance of getting involved today to improve a child’s chance
of having a hopeful tomorrow. That is why this couple doesn’t
sit still. They’re always in motion, always doing something to
help a cause they are passionate about, whether it be raising
funds or rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard work to
make a positive impact.
While they’re well-known in town for supporting many important
organizations, their signature causes are Graci’s work at the
Child Advocacy Center (a.k.a. Child Protection Center) and
now the All Star Children’s Center, and Dennis’s leadership in
trauma. It is a challenging goal for even the most optimistic among us,
but for this passionate and philanthropic couple, failure is not an option.
As they sit together in their beautiful, comfortable and unpretentious Siesta
Key home at the end of a long week of busy meetings, their satisfying
smiles fade to looks of concern as we began talking about the current
foster care system.
They know all too well the tragic numbers by heart and each of them
take their turn reciting them:
“400,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States.”
“Every 10 seconds a report of child abuse is made.”
“80 percent of prisoners were abused as children.”
“77 percent of children who die from abuse in Florida are under the
age of four.”
“50 percent of siblings are separated due to a shortage of foster homes.”
These are the sobering numbers which drive this powerhouse couple
into action to raise other kinds of numbers—dollars—which they hope
will help impact countless numbers of children.
Both Graci and Dennis know while these tragic numbers represent the
big picture—a failing systemic issue in society—the real number that
they are concerned with is ONE. Each one of these numbers is a person
with an individual story of a nightmarish tale of trauma.
“Can you imagine being taken away from your home in the middle of
the night, the home where you grew up, as you watch your parent being
arrested while your brothers and sisters are placed in separate police