SCSO raises nearly $12K for Child Advocacy Center

LAURINBURG — The Scotland County Sheriff’s Office closed down Main Street on Saturday to help raise money to help local children.

“Our event was an incredible success, it helped not only raise close to $12,000 total for the Children’s Advocacy Center, but because of this event the Department of Social Services received applications to become foster parents,” said Lieutenant Detective A. James Daigle. “That in itself is worth its weight in gold.

“Because of this event, children who need to be placed into foster care will now have available, caring and loving families to assist them through their healing,” Daigle added.

As the event started off, Daigle said his concerns were raised but later that day things began to improve.

“I was very stressed,” explained Daigle, “it just did not seem like a lot of people were showing up.

“Then around 11 a.m. the street started to fill up , which was a relief,” continued Daigle. “That relief was short-lived as the rain then came and washed the crowd away. It is our hope that this event will continue to get bigger and better with every year.”

For entertainment purposes, The Sheriff’s Office teamed up with “8 Lug Circus” which is a celebrity event team that specializes in “secure” back of house operations, consisting of management, celebrity handling, hospitality, mobile green rooms, stage management, security, medical, crowd control, logistics, backstage passes and much more.

“8 Lug Circus was absolutely phenomenal and an instrumental part in the coordination of this event. said Daigle, “so much so, that we are already working on the planning of next year’s event.”

“I would highly recommend the use of 8 8-lug circus for anyone planning large-scale events,” added Daigle

Representatives from “8 Lug Circus” also said they enjoyed the experience working with the Sheriff’s office and had a great time meeting members of the local community.

“We love visiting Laurinburg, and enjoy working with Sheriff Kersey, Sgt Yarborough, Lt. Daigle, Cpt. Dover and the whole Scotland County Sheriff’s Office,” said Tess Rodrigues vice president of public relations. “They are a dedicated family of professionals that care about the community they serve and take the time to create and implicate the actions to help.

‘We first worked with them in 2023 at the Party Outback event in Laurinburg, where we ran the talent, stage and back of house operations,” Rodrigues added. “Even though it’s our busy time of year, we jumped at the chance to help. We all have a soft spot for helping the kids and community, and anything reputable that we can do to help, we do.”

As he concluded Daigle said he feels the event did end in an overall success.

“We surpassed our goal and we are already looking forward to our next fundraising events,” said Daigle. “We are already working on a disc golf tournament to take place at Camp Monroe in September and we are trying to put together a “Battle of the badges” softball game to be done at a date to be determined, between Scotland County Sheriff’s Office and Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.”

JJ Melton can be reached at [email protected].