The News Room [News Archive]
Sheriff Contact: John Roach: 313-213-5162
Release Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Creature Comfort: Sheriff seeks stuffed animal donations for abused children
Many households, perhaps your own, has one – that assortment of stuffed animals you once thought were so adorable you couldn’t do without them. Instead, they’ve lost their luster and you just haven’t been able to bring yourself to throw them away. Take heart - those cuddly creatures are being called to a higher purpose.
Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans is asking local residents and businesses to donate new or “like new” stuffed animals to his Child Rescue Unit, which has the difficult task of removing children from abusive or neglectful homes. Each year, officers remove nearly 300 children from their homes under court order. The process, though necessary, can be painful.
“It is an extraordinarily confusing and painful time for these children that will stay with them for the rest of their lives,” said Evans. “Giving a little boy or girl a stuff animal they can hold on to can do a great job them some instant comfort. They usually don’t understand they are being neglected or abused because to them that’s ‘normal.’ What they do understand that they are being taken away from their parents – and that’s pretty scary.”
The Sheriff’s Office recently received a generous donation of several hundred brand new stuffed plush animals from Curtains and Comfort, a local non-profit agency that works with abused women and children.
Since news of that donation aired locally, a number of people have stepped forward to donate stuffed animals of their own. Evans said he now wants to expand the program.
Evans said that with enough donations, other sections of the Sheriff’s Office would be able to hand out the plush toys, as well. Narcotics and fugitive apprehension officers, for example, frequently have to arrest a man or woman at home while a child is present. If enough toys are collected, those children, too, will be able to receive one.
Donations can be brought to the following Wayne County Sheriff’s Office locations, as long as they are new or are clean and in excellent condition:
- Sheriff’s Administration Building, 1231 St. Antoine in downtown Detroit
- Sheriff’s Road Patrol Office, 3100 Henry Ruff at Michigan Avenue in Westland
- Highland Park mini-station, located in Model T Plaza, on Woodward north of the Davison Freeway
- William Dickerson Detention Facility, 1705 Hamtramck Drive at Conant in Hamtramck.
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