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FROM VICTIM TO VICTOR
PROFILES
YOUR GUIDE TO PEOPLE, PLACES, AND BUSINESSES IN THE REGION
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Story By K.T. MCKEE
Pictured: Tess Aldridge, Terry Anderson and Pam Hart
Main Photo By ALLEN ALLNOCH
AHA! PHOTOGRAPHY
FROM VICTIM TO VICTOR
SATILLA ADVOCACY SERVICES HELPS SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS RECLAIM THEIR LIVES
Satilla Advocacy Services began in a tiny o ce with one phone and small desk in 1998. Today, it is the most integral part of the region’s e orts to provide support and resources for victims of sexual abuse.
SATILLA ADVOCACY SERVICES
Above: SAS utilizes resources from across a wide spectrum of agencies such as this group helping plan the SAS Super Bowl event: Roxanne Tanner, SAS Victim Service Coord., Chief Tommy Cox, Waycross Police Dept., Alicia Alderman, SAS SANE Coord., Chief Danny Christmas, Ware County Schools Dept. of Public Safety, Captain Teresa Grant, Ware County Schools Dept. of Public Safety, Sheriff Carl James, Ware County Sheriff ’s Offi ce, Sasitan White, SAS Victim Service Coord., Tess Aldridge, SAS Exec. Dir., Marissa Burgess, SAS Counselor, Latoshia Kirksey, SAS Clinical Coord., Agent Taylor Luciano, GBI Robyn Thomas, SAS Grant Mgr., Shawnda McDaniel, SAS SANE Nurse, Maggie Santana, SAS Community Awareness Coord. ABOVE: SAS off ers services 24/7 for victims of sexual abuse.
She was only 11 when she became pregnant by her own father. He would come into her room at night after her mother and two little brothers were asleep. This had been going on for at least two years.
Now 21 and sharing her story recently under the pseudonym of “Samantha,” the Waycross molestation survivor who is happily living with her longtime boyfriend and 10-month-old baby girl has nothing but good things to say about Satilla Advocacy Services (SAS).
“It was a very, very nice experience,” she said of the many ways SAS assisted her after police responded to her home upon the discovery she was six months pregnant 10 years ago. “I could see they cared about me and the family.”
Samantha said she didn’t even realize she was pregnant at the time. When she missed some menstrual cycles, her mother took her to the doctor. She had tried to keep her father away from her by having one of her baby brothers sleep with her.
She said when investigators started asking her questions, she made up stories out of fear.
“My stories didn’t match the pregnancy, so they knew something wasn’t right,” she said. “I was just all confused. I didn’t know how my mama was going to react. She had no idea at all.”
Once SAS got involved by providing forensic services to law enforcement, the father was arrested for sexual abuse of a minor and Samantha immediately received free counseling and support services from SAS. They also assisted with the adoption of the baby boy, making sure her son was placed in a loving, stable home of a couple who couldn’t conceive a biological child.
In May, she will begin nursing classes at Coastal Pines Technical College to follow in the footsteps of her SAS role model, Terry Anderson, by becoming a forensic nurse herself and helping child abuse and sexual assault victims the way she was helped as a child.
“I saw what she did and what I had been through,” she said of the founder of SAS and former longtime executive director. “I feel like I would be helping someone in life later on, too.”
Anderson – who retired from SAS a year ago after twenty-three years to hand over the reins to former banker Tess Aldridge – is now fi nding solace in an “ornery” horse named Cash on fourteen acres in Waycross.
After being haunted by her own life experiences and those of countless victims of abuse and assault for much of her nursing career, the 66-year-old who never had a childhood herself is at peace with her successor, the eight-member SAS board of directors and the many others who work tirelessly to save the lives of youth and adults in Ware, Pierce and four surrounding counties that make up the Waycross Judicial Circuit.
“I’m as happy as a pig in sunshine,” she said, adding she now works with sexual assault victims in area prisons. “God has been good to me. Even though bad things have happened, He has brought me through it. He’s the one who opened the door for Satilla Advocacy. He gave me the courage to stand up for victims.”
Anderson’s journey into the world of victim advocacy fi rst began in 1975 as an emergency room nurse at Satilla Memorial Hospital in Waycross. Coming from “the wrong side of the tracks,” she had an immediate instinct and passion for the women and children brought in by police. The problem was, when police told her to collect evidence from those victims, there wasn’t a good method for doing that.
She clearly remembers one particular trauma patient who still haunts her to this day.
“When I looked in her eyes, it was like all the light had been taken from them,” she said. “It was like her soul had died. “It
did something to me. It was horrible and that young lady has stuck with me my whole life.”
After doing sexual assault exams and reports for more than twenty years without the necessary tools, forensic support, and legal backing, Anderson fi nally took matters into her own hands in 1996 after reports of two sexual assaults at Ware County High School. One involved a mentally disabled girl who’d been dragged outside from the locker room.
The school principal told the girl’s mother to take her to see Anderson at the hospital.
“Dirt and debris fell from her clothes,” she said. “She’d been raped.”
That experience made her realize the need for a program geared toward true victim advocacy through training and cooperation of law enforcement, medical professionals, the courts, and community leaders.
“We needed a 24-hour crisis line, community education, and prevention education in the schools and so much more,” she recalled. “After that rape happened, it became very public, and it was ugly. It sparked fi ve task force meetings with judges and senators and everybody else who could help change the system or provide funding.”
Two years later, former Satilla Memorial CEO Robert Trimm gave Anderson the green light to open the Satilla Rape Crisis Center with a small round desk and one phone in a tiny o ce across the street from the hospital – but told her she’d have to come up with the funding to keep it going.
And she did.
“By the year 2001, children were coming out of the woodwork,” she said. “Our law enforcement community was wonderful for Satilla Advocacy by that time. Everybody came together and we opened the Child Advocacy Center in 2001. Our numbers went crazy.”
It was people like Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner and trail-blazing Waycross OB-GYN Dr. Peggy Howard who helped Anderson pave the way to what SAS is today, she said.
Tanner, the father of current SAS Director Aldridge, was on board with SAS from its beginnings, providing the critical connection between police response and compassion to the SAS board.
“Chief Tanner ended up being the chairman of our advisory board and got sheri s from other counties on board with our mission,” longtime SAS Board Chair Pam Hart explained. “It went from total resistance from law enforcement to really working hand-in-hand.”
Aldridge, who joined SAS as a grant manager and helped with victim services for four years before transitioning to replace Anderson, said being raised by a father who was in law enforcement probably had more of an impact on her than she had realized when it came to fueling her passion for victim advocacy.
She remembers him mentioning SAS over the years but it wasn’t until she began actually working with victims that she became fully woke.
One case involving a seven-yearold girl who’d been molested by her stepfather will probably be with her forever.
“She loved her o ender. She didn’t want him in trouble,” she recalled, her voice cracking with emotion. “Unfortunately, that happens a lot. I remember watching that interview and wondering how she was able to be so brave.”
Having the funding to be able to o er services for free to all victims and their families is something SAS is constantly aware of. Dr. Peggy Howard had left a “substantial endowment” to be used only as an emergency back-up funding source when she died, Anderson said. As a non-profi t organization, SAS is always grateful for volunteers, donors, and event sponsors.
Aldridge is excited about two upcoming events the community can rally around to help boost the good work SAS is doing. A special bowling tournament fundraiser at the newlyrenovated Waycross Bowling Alley, owned by Jamie Ritch McQuaig, dubbed “SAS Super Bowl” will be held in April once the new facility is completed.
“The Super Bowl is a chance for our fi rst responders in our six-county region to enjoy some fun, fellowship and friendly competition while raising funds and awareness for Satilla Advocacy Services and the victims we serve,” Aldridge explained. “As a thank you to our fi rst responders, they will be the fi rst to use the new bowling alley. Those who wish to support the fundraiser can sponsor a fi rst responder team or make a donation.”
Also for the fi rst time, SAS will team up with Magnolia House Domestic Violence Shelter and Outreach at its annual “Dancing with the Southern Stars” event in August.
Regina Miller, a dedicated SAS volunteer and social services supervisor for DFACS said community members wishing to get involved with SAS by actually being trained in victim services can simply make a call to SAS to get the ball rolling.
“They do such a wonderful job,” Miller said of SAS. “They are there 24/7 and are never grouchy when awakened in the middle of the night to help a victim. They do amazing work and I feel honored to be a part of it in any way I can.” OL
To support Satilla Advocacy Services by becoming a trained volunteer or to support the organization with a donation, contact SAS by calling 912-285-7355 or send a message to support@satillaadvocacy.org.
