- April 24, 2024
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A miser from birth, I could recognize even as a Cub Scout that the candy and popcorn and candles I was trying to sell door-to-door were overpriced, and that I was mostly relying on the cuteness factor of a kid in uniform and the goodwill of my neighbors to support the cause.
The Girl Scouts do it best. They sell something that everyone looks forward to: Samoa cookies.
But Doug Sebastian, a Palm Coast resident and the founder of the Major League Baseball nonprofit charities KinderVision and The Greatest Save, may have found something even better.
The Police Athletic League is the first youth organization in Flagler County to adopt The Greatest Save as its fundraiser of choice. The idea is each athlete sells memberships to The Greatest Save for $20. The membership includes a discount card to area businesses, as well as a chance to win prizes from sponsors.
The real benefit, though, is that $10 stays with PAL — a much better percentage than most fundraising programs. The other $10 also stays in Flagler County in the form of educational materials for teaching kids how to avoid being kidnapped or abducted. In all, 100% of the funds stay in the community.
The Sheriff’s Office, which supports PAL, is on board because of the importance of educating people about how to keep their kids safe. Sebastian said there are two big misconceptions when it comes to kidnappings. First, people usually think it’s the very young who are at risk. Data from the Department of Justice, however, show otherwise: 59% of all kidnapping victims are 15 to 17 years old.
Second, parents often stress that kids should stay away from strangers, assuming that’s the biggest threat. It’s important to be wary around strangers, but even more kids are kidnapped by friends or long-term acquaintances (38%) than by strangers (37%).
A 7-year-old girl, Brittany Baxter, was on the news last month in Georgia, where she was caught on tape being abducted up by a 25-year-old ex-convict at a store. But, as the video shows, she kicked and fought and screamed, and the man put her down and walked away. He was arrested an hour later.
In the news clip, Baxter explains her thought process. Sebastian says, “She’s repeating our content verbatim: ‘Tell someone you trust.’ … How many times do kids just succumb to authority? But she had been taught what to do, and that teaching, in all likelihood, saved her life, and at the very least prevented her from suffering.”
High self-esteem is one key factor in avoiding abductions, and that’s why it makes sense to partner with youth organizations, such as PAL, that help develop self-esteem, Sebastian said. But the hope is to expand The Greatest Save membership program. Representatives of other organizations who want to raise funds in this way can email dsebastian @kindervision.org. See www.TheGreatest Save.org for more information.
But if the Girl Scouts join on, whatever you do, don’t stop selling the cookies!
