The Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC), a nonprofit located in Holland dedicated to providing support for child survivors of abuse, has a Youth Advocacy Team (YAT) comprised of teens around Ottawa county who are passionate about the work provided at the CAC. The YAT’s purpose is to provide a youth’s insight and perspective regarding the impacts on how the CAC can better serve the community. 

The YAT recently held a fundraiser during a Spring Lake Varsity Girls and Boys basketball game on Friday, February 3rd for fundraising to create a one-year supply of “Court Support” bags for child victims of sexual abuse who are heading to trial. 

At Spring Lake High School, we have several students who are a part of this team. Anna McLean, Sarah Sevener, Catherine Vandergriff, and Laini Furton are all a part of the YAT executive committee as well as Clara Saunders, Gabe Trask, Hale Phillips, and Ava Laug who are also a part of the team. 

In order to raise money to fund the court bags, the team decided to raise the ticket price of the Coopersville basketball game from $5 to $6. All of the $1 proceeds would go directly to the YAT, plus anything put into a donation bin. At the end of the night, the YAT was able to raise over $300! 

Executive committee members Sarah Sevener and Catherine Vandergriff also commented that “I felt it went well, but it was hard to quantify the amount of awareness that we had raised,” and that “it was exciting and gratifying to work with our school on something so important, and I hope it shed some light on the reality of sexual abuse in our community,” respectively. 

SLHS’ athletic director, vice principal, and principal initially sat down with the YAT to discuss the best way for all of us to fundraise. Their support was greatly appreciated. A big thanks to everyone involved in setting up the fundraiser and everyone that came to the game to support!