Life Notes: A parent's grief transforms into empowerment

It's a troubling phenomenon that many children who are sexually abused become the victims of someone they know and trust.

Polly Franks was aware of this fact and always alert; yet the truth hit home when a neighborhood dad abused her two young daughters during a weekend sleepover in 1995.

The man was convicted of the crime, but received probation.

Franks, a longtime Henrico County resident, felt justice had not been served. She was tormented by how her 8- and 9-year-old daughters had been harmed.

"I was so full of rage and pain," she said. "I needed to direct it in a positive direction."

The decision to turn her family's challenges into triumph still reverberates 16 years later, and thousands of children are safer and nurtured because of it.

Franks, an administrative assistant at the time of her daughters' abuse, initially staunched her pain by arming herself with information and skills. She became a licensed private investigator and routinely tracked the movements of her daughters' perpetrator throughout central Virginia so she could inform police that a sexual predator had moved into their community.

Then she went public, encouraging other parents to be vigilant about their children's well-being. Franks (who uses her maiden name to protect her daughters' privacy) wrote articles about their abuse for national publications, appeared on national TV and joined efforts to secure child-friendly federal legislation, including the Amber Alert Plan and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

To this day, she encourages residents to be aware of who lives in their neighborhood by conducting a search for local sexual predators on www.familywatchdog.us.

By 2007, Franks felt the need to not only assist at the advocacy level, but also to help young victims. Knowing that hospital visits can be scary and traumatic under typical circumstances, she realized the scenario must be more daunting for children who found the courage to report sexual abuse.

Franks connected with Bonnie Price, lead forensics nurse examiner at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, who conducts many of the hospital's child sexual abuse examinations. The two decided that "comfort kits" would be nice for children undergoing this procedure — something to help them relax that they could also take home.

Franks dubbed the program Operation Fuzzy and began contacting hospitals to offer the kits. Each kit contains a marker or crayon, depending on the child's age; a drawing pad, and a new stuffed animal, and it is wrapped in a child-themed pillowcase and tied with a bow, giving it the appearance of a present.

Franks partnered with St. Mary's pediatric emergency room and with the pediatric ER at VCU Medical Center to launch the program. She now provides kits to 12 hospitals in nine Virginia localities and in Tennessee, Alaska and Arkansas.

So far she has distributed about 2,000 kits, which cost $25 each to create. She funds the program from a small nonprofit called the Franks Foundation. Franks distributes the kits as often as her resources permit, and she has received support for special projects from several celebrities, including singer Amy Grant.

Franks' daughters are now 24 and 25 and doing well.

Their perpetrator eventually was arrested for abusing a 5-year-old girl, and authorities linked him to at least 70 other sex crimes. He was sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison.

Franks was grateful that his conviction meant he'd never harm another child.

However, she came to realize through her advocacy efforts how important it is for parents to listen to and support their children if a crisis like this occurs.

"It's natural for a parent to be angry and to want to see justice served," Franks said, "but when these things happen, the most important thing is to get the child through it OK, and to make sure the child knows it's not (his or her) fault."