The Pickens Doodle Trail was the location for the first annual one-mile Walk for Prevention, held Saturday morning, April 19, 2025 by Pickens County Advocacy Center (formerly Rape Crisis Center) and The Parenting Place (formerly Prevent Child Abuse Pickens County). Also participating were The Hiding Place, The Pickens Police Department, The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, and Behavioral Health Services, with tables set up offering information about their organizations, and Clemson University students who participated in the walk. The first 50 people to sign up for the event received a free t-shirt.

Josh Holder, Director of Pickens County Advocacy Center, welcomed everyone to the event. “This walk is a partnership with The Parenting Place,” he told the crowd. “We appreciate all of y’all coming out here today.” He introduced Faye Nichols, who serves as Chair of the Board for Pickens County Advocacy Center.

“Thank y’all so much for coming out this morning,” said Nichols. “It’s a beautiful day for this. This event is very important, because April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and it’s also Sexual Assault Awareness Month. So, to have an event like this, to bring attention to that, is very important.

“PCAC is a private non-profit agency. It’s been serving Pickens County since 1985. Initially, it was Rape Crisis, and I believe it started out of the Sheriff’s Department through some of their legal advocates. This is the 40^th year, the 40^th anniversary of PCAC. So, we’re going to try to highlight that all year long. Our mission is to prevent sexual violence and to support survivors.

“PCAC provides immediate 24-hour response to sexual assault victims and their families through a 24-hour crisis line, which means if you call the office in the daytime and you’re in crisis, you’re going to get somebody to talk to. That means if a victim shows up at the hospital, somebody from the office, one of the staff members, is going to meet them at the hospital. After hours, there is a crisis line. Again, you call the office number and you get an on-call person, and they will talk you through whatever is going on. Or the hospitals call when they have a victim at the hospital. That is a service they provide. Hospital accompaniment – I want to say a little bit about that. A lot of times, when there is a victim, they’re by themselves. So, to have somebody in that room with them and hold their hand, just to be there with them, to be with them when the nurses do the forensic exam, means a whole lot to them. So, that’s an important part of it.

“PCAC provides legal advocacy. So, if somebody needs to get a restraining order, there’s a legal advocate there that can walk them through that process. They can go with them to court. They can help them maneuver the legal aspects of what they’re going through.

“They also provide educational workshops and awareness campaigns. We have somebody on staff that will go into schools and talk about healthy relationships and anything associated with sexual violence and how to prevent it.

“We have community events. We have a person that is a community outreach person. Each one of them wears many hats, because it’s a very small staff. They all kind of have to do everything. But community outreach — they do table events, like we have here. I know that Katrina has a very important job. They all have very important jobs.

“There are volunteer opportunities. We have a volunteer coordinator. There are volunteer opportunities for on-call, to help out at events like this.

“Also, they offer counseling services, and the therapist is licensed. Her area of expertise is trauma. Those counseling services are available to family members, as well. All services are free, and that’s a very important part.

“I want to introduce some board members to you: Kim Lappin, Dana Frost, Robert Sams, and Mary Ann Hunter. Josh has just been our Director since March. He’s been with the agency for several years, but he’s just been with us since March as Director, and he’s doing a really good job. We’re very proud of him.

“Thank y’all again for being here. Enjoy your walk.”

Next to speak before the walk began was Katrina Valliere, who greeted all of those gathered. “Hi, everyone. I’m Katrina Valliere with The Parenting Place, and we are a local child abuse prevention agency. I would like to introduce our Board President. He’s also with the Pickens County Library System. This is Adam Williamson.”

“Good morning, everybody,” said Williamson. “I just want to say thanks for coming out. We appreciate all you do. We appreciate our volunteers, especially the Kappa Deltas, because they’ve done so much for us over the years. The Parenting Place really is about preventing child abuse, for us. We take, particularly at-risk, parents, and we try to get in early, help them with classes and in-home visits and support them any way we can. I do want to thank everybody for coming out and walking today and showing your support for both of these worthy agencies.”

Josh Holder then introduced Pickens Police Chief Randal Beach. “He’s going to say a few words of support for us,” said Holder. “Again, I just want to thank everybody. We really appreciate y’all coming out today.”

“Yesterday evening was interrupted for me with a stark reminder,” said Chief Beach. “We were together last night with a 13-year-old victim in our emergency room right here in Pickens. It was not what I was expecting yesterday, and I’m sure I’ll be thinking of this young person every step that they’re going to make me run out here. That was a tough reminder of the reality of the presence of victims. In a crowd this size, statistically, there are victims present here, who, with smiles on their faces, are going about their day, living amongst us. And I hope this is an encouragement for them, and for every victim out there that knows about events like this, that there are people that stand in the gaps and that care, like you, Brittany and Breann (with the Pickens Police Department and The Hiding Place). It’s very, very important. And I just want to thank all of the members of the Pickens Police Department that are here today to show this kind of support for our victims advocate and all the work that we do together. So, I really appreciate everybody being here. Thank you.”