by Dennis Dalman
The St. Cloud area has long been identified as a “training hub” for the horrendous criminal sex-trafficking that is increasing constantly in Minnesota and throughout the world.
Local people are outraged about it and want to bring awareness to those heinous crimes in order to put an end to the abuse and violence. Many of those local people have organized a fundraising event called “Walk Together: Uniting Against Sexual Violence.” All of the proceeds will go to the St. Cloud-based Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center. Last year, the same kind of walk raised almost $31,000 for the CMSAC.
The walk will begin on the morning of Saturday, April 30 in front of Shear Dynamics Beauty Salon, located at 65 Third St. NE in Waite Park. Registration there will begin at 8:30 a.m. The annual 5k walk will begin at 9 a.m. and end at about 10:30 a.m. in front of Shear Dynamics. Walkers will go along Division Street past Crossroads shopping mall, then return to Shear Dynamics where there will be a roster of speakers featured from 10:30 a.m. to noon. There will also be snacks, beverages and music by singer Donny Brang.
People can register in advance online at walktogethermn.org. Donations by those who cannot make the walk can also be made on that website, and companies can register on it for corporate sponsorships.
Those who register by April 4 will be charged $30 per walker (children under 10 can walk free). After April 4, the cost will be $35. Teams of 20 or more walkers are eligible for $500 in gifts provided by the Bad Habit Brewing Company of St. Joseph.
Linda Wander, owner of Shear Dynamics, is the founder of “Walk Together: Uniting Against Sexual Violence.”
Sexual-trafficking is, in fact, “paid rape,” Wander said. “Imagine if that was happening to your son or daughter.”
The solution, she said, is to eliminate the demand for such crimes through profound attitudinal changes throughout society, including that often dismissive/permissive attitude that “boys will be boys.”
A combination of an increased awareness of the crime, information about how it occurs and deep, widespread attitudinal changes are the best ways to begin to stop it, Warner said.
CMSAC
The Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center, the recipient of proceeds from the walk, helps victims of sexual exploitation/violence by providing shelter, resources and services to help them recover from the traumas they have endured. Many of those victims decide to share their horror stories in an effort to raise awareness of just how pervasive and violent sex-trafficking is. Sex-trafficking/prostitution is the forcible use of others, including in many cases both girls and boys, to participate in sex acts to make money for the vicious perpetrators.
The CMSAC provides shelter, safety and help for between 70 to 100 victims every year.
According to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office website, there are an estimated 40 million people (adults and children) who are victims of sexual-trafficking, abuse and violence. One in four of those victims is a child; seven in 10 are females – children and adults.
Minnesota has the third highest rate of prostitution in the United States, according to some studies. St. Cloud has the highest rate of that crime in Minnesota, after the Twin Cities area. Victims who are “groomed” for prostitution in, say, St. Cloud, are often transported by their profiteering perpetrators to other areas or states where they are abused over and over again.
How it happens
Many wonder how victims can submit so readily to the demands of their abusers. According to experts, there are many inter-related reasons that keep victims helpless in the cruel and violent bondage. For example, some children flee their homes because of traumatic situations: drug abuse, physical violence or sexual abuse (including being victims of incest). Homeless, those children or teenagers, for mere survival, often gravitate to dangerous places in which pedophiles and/or sex-traffickers are lurking, just waiting for yet another victim to turn up.
Typically, the cruel perpetrators come across as “nice adults willing to offer comfort and help.” They give the young people (or vulnerable adults) a place to stay, food, gifts and other favors. Drugs or alcohol are some of the “gifts” that numb the victims, making it easier to manipulate them and convince them to participate in sexual activity for money and more “gifts.”
Eventually, those dominated victims become numb to their predicaments and feel utterly helpless to do anything about what is happening to them. Drug use helps further numb their feelings, pain and shame. Complicating their helplessness are the threats to them, verbal and physical, that if they do not cooperate, something very awful will happen to them or loved ones.
And thus, the vicious cycle of exploitation continues with the victims trapped in a hell devised by their perpetrators. The lucky ones manage to escape or find such services as are provided by the CMSAC.
CMSAC history
The Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center’s earliest roots began in 1976 when a committee of women met at the St. Cloud Women’s Center to discuss the problem of rape in the area. They agreed on the need for some kind of crisis center.
The women then formed the Committee on Rape Victim Support and began to study the problem of sexual violence and how to deal with it.
In 1977, training workshops began in order to start a rape-crisis center via the Women’s Center in St. Cloud. Thanks to generous donations and more work, that year a Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Center opened. That center later led to the opening of the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center, incorporated in 1984. It is an independent agency operated by a board of directors, and is still dependent largely upon donations, grants, networking and volunteerism.
To learn more about the center or how to donate to it, visit its website at cmsac.org.