Rising Stars: Meet John D’Attoma of Overland Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to John D’Attoma

Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
In June 2006, our six-year-old granddaughter, Sarah, told her mother that her daddy was sexually abusing her. Our daughter immediately called the authorities, and he was arrested. Thus, the physical nightmare ended for our granddaughter, and another nightmare began for our daughter and granddaughters. One can never truly imagine or understand the effects of a crime until it happens in your family. Due to financial pressures, our daughter, with four children under seven years of age, was forced to sell her home, car, and many personal belongings. They relocated to a new community to begin their lives anew.

Thanks to the generosity of family, friends and business associates whose gifts provided support, our daughter has survived financially. Many victims and their families have not been as blessed to have such support surround them. Due to the courage and strength of our granddaughters’ reporting her father’s sexual abuse, he was sent to prison for a 12-year minimum sentence. Our daughter’s plight awakened us to a severe shortfall of support for families with sexually abused children. Victim’s families may not follow through with reporting the abuse if the abuser is an income contributor to the family and there is a fear of survival due to loss of income. Families reporting child sexual abuse may suffer not only the loss of income but may also lose health benefits, transportation and other financial benefits supported by the child abuser.

We founded the Sexually Abused Children’s Relief Endeavor (sacred) to help families who were not as fortunate to have the resources available to our daughter. We received our 501 (c) (3) on July 16, 2009. In 2010, we made our first grants to applicants in need, submitted by Child Advocacy Centers. We helped 3 families with 6 kids with an average grant of $312. In 2010, we raised a total of $3125. As our donations grew, we were able to help more families and kids. Our first big breakthrough in fundraising came in 2013, when some friends offered to host and wine and art auction at their home. As my wife and I were running sacred as volunteers, I had a full-time job in the wine and spirits industry. I was able to secure some nice auction items and raised enough money so that, in 2014, we had enough revenue to help 26 families with 65 kids with an average grant of $1128. Our revenue in 2014 was $47,343.

Since our founding, sacred has helped 537 families with 1442 kids with average grants of $2337. Last year, we granted $231,812 to 66 families with 156 kids. In July of 2023, we hired our first paid employee to transition to the Executive Director’s position and replace our co-founder and my wife, Carol, who decided to retire on 12/31/2023. Prior to that hiring, Carol (D’Attoma) and I ran sacred and handled all aspects of the operation. I handled finance, marketing, administration and fundraising, Carol handled working with the CACs, preparing the applications to present to the Board of Directors, and prepare payments to the CACs for distribution to the needy families.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest challenge is child sexual abuse is something that is not discussed and hard to get donors engaged on a website. They have to hear and see our story and those of so many others for it to impact them. Since we never see the families, or their children, it’s difficult to show donors the impact their donations make. We work only through Child Advocacy Centers (CAC), who vet our families in need and present them to our Executive Director. Our Board of Directors votes within 8 hours and funds are disbursed within 24 hours. As far as we know, sacred is the only nonprofit in the country that does this.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My full-time work has been in the wine and spirits industry since 1972. I started In a Joseph E. Seagram’s training program and through increasing positions of responsibility, I was able to build a career first as a supplier then in distribution management. I was able to build relationships throughout the country that, when we started sacred, gave me the contacts necessary to secure in-kind donations for our annual auction, our largest fundraiser.

Throughout my career, I always believed you build trust and raise people up. I find that if employees want to work with and for you, they and you will be more successful. If you manage by intimidation and fear, your only option is, if you are not getting the success you require, is to release the employee. If you raise people up, allow them to use their ability to grow and succeed and manage as a mentor, you have another option if the employee performance is an issue.

I am most proud of founding sacred and growing it with just my wife and me, I am amazed at how much good we have done and never imagined the size and scope of what we accomplished. Unfortunately, there is not much I can say about managing sacred since we had no employees to last year and have no volunteers, except for our Board of Directors.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
Overland Park is great place to live. Although I have no children at home, it’s a great place to raise a family, with terrific schools (I am told), great parks, plenty of restaurants and other sources of recreation. I really enjoy Blue Valley recreation center.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kidsaresacred.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sacred4Kids
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidsaresacred
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/kidsaresacred
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLNssEaab5oasNHKRXw3rEQ