'We think child abuse happens in other places, but it happens right here in Pensacola'

Prominent Pensacola businessman Sandy Sansing says his heart starts to break when he thinks about all of the children who suffer abuse in his hometown.

"You think it happens in Los Angeles," he said. "You don't know that over 300 children every month — every month — go to Gulf Coast Kid's House because they've been sexually and physically abused right here in Pensacola."

The Gulf Coast Kid's House, a children's advocacy center serving Escambia County, expects to serve 3,000 kids per year, providing them with counseling for their experience with child abuse and allowing them access to legal and enforcement professionals in a safe space.

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But the organization's capacity to help children in need has almost tripled in size from its humbler beginnings two decades ago — when it could only manage to serve 1,000 per year — thanks to donor support like that of Sansing.

On Tuesday, while standing in the lobby of the Sandy Sansing BMW dealership on Airport Boulevard, the businessman presented a check for $100,000 to members of the Gulf Coast Kid's House board of directors and staff with the hope to continue the good work in the community and future growth.

"I've been involved with the Gulf Coast Kid's House for maybe 20 years, and it's so sad that we have child abuse so prevalent in our community," Sansing told the small crowd who attended the check-handing ceremony. "Gulf Coast Kid's House reaches out to help the children and their families. It's a wonderful organization."

Executive Director Stacey Kostevicki told the News Journal that the Gulf Coast Kid's House would not be able to operate without the generosity of people like Sansing as donations pay for 70% of her organization's annual expenses.

"We are incredibly grateful for our big donors. One thing I never want to get lost is how grateful we are for our everyday donors, too. There is no amount too small," Kostevicki said. "It's the monthly donors and the $100 and the $50 donors, here and there, who make sure the lights stay on."

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Sansing, a Gulf Coast Kid's House board member emeritus, was joined at the Tuesday ceremony by his longtime friend and current Gulf Coast Kid's House board member Teri Levin.

Back in the late 1990s, Levin was one of two people who convinced Sansing to attend his first introductory meeting at the Kid's House — an experience that led to a two-decade personal mission for Sansing to do whatever he could to help fight child abuse.

He also has frequently acted as the emcee for the Kid's House annual fundraising luncheon called Breaking the Silence Luncheon.

"There was always a child who would get up and speak and share their story and the different kids who have shared of the abuse in their home from stepdads, from relatives, from other people, and the stuff that they have lived through will break your heart and make me committed to do what I can to help stop and prevent this," Sansing said. "It's horrible, horrible. And I've seen the kids. To see a little girl who's been abused to get up in front of an audience and retell the story — and obviously start crying, when she does — there wasn't a dry eye in the audience when you hear that."

He added, "It is just so sickening that that goes on. And again, we think it happens in other places, but it happens right here in Pensacola."

Over the years, Levin said that Sansing has made many a potential Kid's House donor cry himself when advocating and educating people on the prevalence of child abuse.

"He talks about the abuse and how to help children. As an example, he asked people to imagine a whole school and that every kid in that school has been abused," Levin said, referring to the 300 kids helped by Kid's House every month. "Mentally, sometimes people can’t think about the numbers of the children that it affects, and it affects that many."

Levin has been donating and helping to raise money for the Kid's House since its founding in 1998 when the organization started out in a small office on South Palafox.

"A little bitty office," Levin explained, "that’s where we started."

A fundraising campaign, which both Levin and Sansing participated in, helped the Kid's House to afford and move into its current building, a former A and P grocery store, on 12th Avenue in 2004.

Children who have been abused can now receive many of the services that they require in a single location.

"The entire building is very kid friendly, and it's all there in one place instead of bouncing a child from this agency to that agency to the police," Sansing explained. "It's all right there."

Children who have suffered abuse can now meet with prosecutors, police and Florida Department of Children and Families caseworkers in the building that is designed be a child-friendly environment.

"It's the bigger donations, like Sandy's and Teri's, who help you create a new program or do some big change," Kostevicki said. "But I don't want to under value our smaller donors."

Anyone who would like to donate to the Gulf Coast Kid's House can do so by visiting www.gulfcoastkidshouse.org.

Colin Warren-Hicks can be reached at colinwarrenhicks@pnj.com or 850-435-8680.

Want to help?

Learn more about spotting child abuse by taking this short online training at knowchildabuse.org.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gulf Coast Kid's House donations help fight child abuse in Escambia County