On Wednesday, Sheriff Margaret Mims met with members of Rural Route 4-H.
The high school students from Riverdale, Caruthers, Easton and the Westside area presented the Sheriff’s Office with backpacks they put together.
Rural Route 4-H is comprised of 50 students who are between the ages of 9 to 18. The group recently completed a community service project which focused on supporting children who are being removed from homes or bad situations and relocated to safe places. They filled 40 backpacks with items such as: a stuffed animal, games, activity books, notebooks, pencils, erasers, pens, hand sanitizer, mittens, a toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brushes and combs. During each club meeting, members brought the requested items and in March they stuffed the backpacks
“We are very proud of our club in supporting this project and we hope these bags will bring some joy to the kids during a very difficult time,” said Laila Rollin, Vice President of Rural Route 4-H.
Domestic Violence is a terrible problem that affects not only the victim, but the children as well. Each year the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office investigates more than 1,000 incidents related to domestic violence. In many of these cases, the children as well as the victims become displaced.
"On behalf of the Sheriff’s Office, I want to express my gratitude and thanks to the Rural 4-H Club for their hard work and dedication to helping victims of Fresno County. At any given time, more than half of the temporary residents of the Marjaree Mason Center are displaced children, who are often the overlooked silent victims of domestic violence. These backpacks will help to provide a bit of stability to their chaotic world," said Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims.
The California Office of Emergency Services just awarded the Sheriff’s Office a three year grant which adds a new Domestic Violence Detective and a full time Victim Advocate assigned from the Marjaree Mason Center. The Marjaree Mason Center has been a valuable ally of the Sheriff’s Office.
