Trades Help Make Holly’s House Reality
In August 1997 Holly Dunn, a University of Kentucky coed from Evansville, was
raped and left for dead. Her boyfriend had been murdered by the same person.
Holly was the only one of 15 women who survived the brutal insanity of the
person called “the Railroad Rapist”. The path of violence stretched from Florida
to Indiana, and worst of all, there is no record of that person being caught and
charged for those crimes.
Sometimes its seems impossible to imagine anything good coming out of some of
the horrible things that humans do to each other.
Because of Holly and a lot of other people, there is some good coming out of
this. Actually a lot of good is coming out of this.
After the attack, Holly regrouped and took it upon herself to begin speaking in
public about the attack and raising awareness about the issues of sexual
violence. Her words caught the attention of Brian Turpin, who is a Detective
with the Evansville Police Force, Sex Crimes Unit. They formed a partnership, and that’s when Turpin told Holly of his idea of creating an Advocacy
Center for victims of sex abuse in the Evansville area. That was 3 ½ years ago.
At the time there were only 15 such facilities in the entire state.
Except for the ambitious idea of building an advocacy center, they didn’t have
much else at the start. It took 2 years to find a location but finally Holly’s
Foundation secured the old North Park Library for a token sum.
A lot of reconfiguring was going to be necessary to turn a library into the kind
of facility they envisioned. Not knowing who to approach, or how to go about it,
someone suggested to Det. Turpin that they talk to the Carpenters Union. Perhaps
they could do it.
They first met with Marvin Byrers, the Carpenters Local 90’s Business Agent, who
was all for the idea, but he knew that what they wanted to do was far beyond the
scope of just the carpenters so he took them to the next meeting of the building
trades.
At the building trades meeting Holly said “All we had to do was say we have this building and what we want to do and everybody was just gung
ho,… they voted, but there was never a question”. Within 5 minutes all the
building trades volunteered to donate their time and talents to make the
Advocacy Center a reality.
Holly said that it was quite a moment. Up until then she didn’t know much about
the Building trades or union workers. “You don’t hear about them very often,…you
hear about strikes....” She doesn’t think that anymore.
In July 2007 the demo work began as the sheet metal workers tore out the duct
work, the laborers tore out concrete, and the electricians set up new breaker
boxes. Money for building supplies has been donated from various groups, and
many of the local suppliers are providing materials at cost, a local engineering
firm drew up even the plans for free. None-the-less, Holly says by far the
biggest savings and greatest value is the work the unions are doing to make this
center a reality.
The project is going at least 6 days a week. Lynn Miller Pease, of the Holly House Board of Directors says that often when she visits the site
the parking lot is totally filled with cars and trucks of the volunteers.
Journeymen and Apprentices even pitch in after they’ve already worked a 40 hour
week at their regular jobs. Sheet Metal workers, electricians, plumbers,
bricklayers, painters, carpenters, cement masons, and glazers are all involved.
The material for the electrical labor and supplies is estimated at $150k alone.
Estimates of the entire project are around ½ a million (at least).
One of the most incredible facets of this phenomenon is that this endeavor
doesn’t really have a project manager. Each trade has a coordinator, but they
all work together for this common goal.
When Holly’s House is finished it will provide a central location to house the
Evansville Police Departments Sex Crimes Unit, a Doctors office, an Admin.
office, an examination room for collecting evidence and other forms of support
for the victims. This facility will not be a jail or ever hold prisoners. It’s about making sure everything is done to help the victim and
making sure the perpetrators come to justice. Holly’s House is a non-profit
organization, so the Evansville Police Department will pay for utilities and
rent for the space it uses.
This advocacy center will be the first of its kind in the Tri State Area, and
will serve south western Indiana, focusing on Vandeburgh county, but including
Warrick, Spencer, Posey and possibly Pike County.
Holly’s House will even be able to tap into the National Sex Crimes Data base,
making it a formidable tool in helping protect victims and apprehend suspects.
Advocacy Centers make a big difference. Looking at some of the numbers, it
becomes clear why the presence of an advocacy center like this is so important.
In cases where no advocacy center is involved charges are only filed 39% of the
time vs. 76% when there is such a center.
Guilty Pleas go from 24% without the benefit of advocacy centers to 56%.
Average jail time for convicts of Sexual Violence crimes goes from 104 months to 137 months, when an advocacy center is
involved.
It’s not practical to try to name all of the volunteers and key people involved
in this project. Literally hundreds are giving their time and talents to make
this a reality.
Many of the good things union people do go under the radar, but in Evansville,
they really make a difference.