Roof-sit fundraiser for local children's advocacy center kicks off Sunday

The annual event that helps raise a large portion of funds for the St. Clair County Child Abuse/Neglect Council is set to return next week.

And for this year’s Community Roof-Sit for Kids, Executive Director Sherry Archibald said they’re aiming for $175,000 — or roughly how much they raised last year.

“Our Sunday Funday that we started just before COVID is back, and so we’re hoping to continue to grow that,” she said, referring to the family-friendly kick-off event that’ll be from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

“We’re having free activities in the parking lot, back behind MiMutual Mortgage — kind of our way of giving back and saying thank you to all that give and support us throughout the year,” she said. “So, we’ll have a petting zoo, pony rides. New this year to that is we actually have four kids’ bikes that we are raffling off for free. Just put your name in and hope to win.”

And then, immediately following the kickoff, Archibald said Q Country 107 host Matt Markham will ascend to the roof of the MiMutual building, 911 Military St., where he’ll broadcast with community leaders to help raise funds until Friday, Sept. 16.

In an email, Markham said he was “ready to get back to work this year and get the community working to raise funds for the prevention of child abuse within our county.”

The week-long event typically takes pledges over the phone at (810) 966-9911 or online, as well as mail-in contributions to the CAN Council at 1107 Military St., Port Huron, MI, 48060, or walk-ups during the event.

Call or visit www.facebook.com/sccstopchildabuse for more.

Archibald said the Roof Top Rally Day also returns on Wednesday, though “there’s a little new twist to that.”

The rally typically involves leaders and business figures personally arriving on the roof — according to the council, to “try to match wits and friends” — and raise money head to head.

“We’ll still have team captain, Deb Johnson, against Mike Wendling. But we are doing a guys-against-gals,” Archibald said. Johnson is the executive director of St. Clair County Community Mental Health, and Wendling is the county’s prosecutor.

How do the funds raised help the CAN Council?

Archibald said the funds from the annual roof-sit represent “a little over 40%” of their budget raised.

Recent 990 forms for the nonprofit have put annual contributions and total revenue into the $300,000 and $400,000 range, respectively.

However, Archibald said this year’s fundraiser comes at a time when funding for children's advocacy centers — providing child abuse prevention education and awareness, as well as some counseling to young victims — has been a bit more tenuous.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced in late August a 50% cut to the state-administered Victims of Crime Act funding that funnels down to centers. Days later, the department reported it’d “received good news from the federal government” about the revenue source for the state’s CACs. Though previous communication with federal partners indicated a significant reduction, about $12 million was expected to be preserved to centers in the next fiscal year.

Still, Archibald said they may be put in a similar position down the road.  She emphasized the importance of the roof-sit funds.

“We already know that next year we’re looking at probably somewhere between a 55 to 60% cut to our VOCA funding, which for us will mean at least 130 to $150,000 cut,” she said.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.