ACC SANE, or Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, hosted its second annual Survive to Thrive fundraising luncheon Thursday at Athens First Presbyterian Church.
SANE provides free forensic medical services for pediatric, adolescent and adult patients who have experienced sexual violence and child physical abuse exams.
Michelle Dickens is Executive Director of the organization, which serves 10 counties in northeast Georgia.
“When a patient presents at the emergency department with a report of a sexual assault, they call our providers.”
First Lady Marty Kemp was the keynote speaker at Thursday’s event. She was there to discuss her GRACE [Georgians for Refuge, Action, Compassion and Education] program. Dickens said that in addition to showing her support for their work, Mrs. Kemp's presence also helped bring attention to SANE's efforts.
“I will say that we feel very honored and also very validated the work that’s been done by this program over the past 24 years and even before I came along was really something that not a lot of people knew about,” according to Dickens. “So to have her come in and acknowledge the importance openly in the community of having these services for survivors I think was very validating.”
Mrs. Kemp spoke with WUGA contributor Allison Salerno earlier about GRACE.
“Ivanka Trump had asked me back in December when we were in D.C. if we would consider making this one of my initiatives…so the GRACE Commission was formed,” Kemp said. “We’ve got 26 members and it was literally just bringing the experts to the table.”
SANE also handed two awards this year, one to Dr. Marni Dodd and the other to Sheriff Scott Berry.
Organizers hoped to raise $25,000 for the organization at the luncheon.
For more information on becoming a board member, volunteer, or to donate, visit: https://saneinc.org/.