Smith Transport Supports Guardians of the Children

Smith Transport Inc. of Roaring Spring met with Guardians of the Children Keystone Chapter on Friday, Jan. 31, and presented it with a check for $8,455.

Each year Smith Transport selects an organization and fundraises all year to support the cause. For 2019 Guardians of the Children Keystone Chapter was the chosen organization.

Guardians of the Children (GOC) is a 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to recognize and react to child abuse and educate the public to do the same and to serve as advocates to provide strength and stability to families in crises. They may be the answer to the prayer of a child or teen for courage, support and protection.

The GOC supports children who have felt physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional mistreatment, neglect and/or bullying. The organization provides a support system which helps to nurture and heal not only the children who have been abused, but the immediate family of those children as well.

The GOC was founded in 2006 in San Antonio. There are 40 chapters throughout the continental United States as well as chapters in Canada. The Keystone Chapter was founded in 2016 and works with an excess of 80 children who benefit from their services. Currently, the Keystone Chapter is the only chapter in the Northeast, with the closest chapters being in East Liverpool, Ohio (East), and Ripley, W.Va. (South). The GOC organization is in the process of implementing a campaign to work with area schools to speak of bullying and the effect such actions have on peers.

Members of the GOC are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas. Also, members may be veterans, nurses, first responders, labors, customer service representatives, mechanics and truck drivers just to name a few.

Members are available to the children in program 24 hours a day/seven days a week. They accompany the children to court and continue to provide services to the children involved in their program until the age of 18. At this time the child is given the opportunity to become a Patched Member.

For more information, visit the Guardians of the Children Keystone Chapter's Facebook page. The organization meets publicly at 6 p.m.on the second Saturday of each month at the Trans4ormation Church in Altoona,

If you know of a family in need of services the GOC provides, call the local chapter's hotline at (814) 283-5505.