Justin Hefner of One Place in Jacksonville addressed members of the local child advocacy center and law enforcement community at the Butterfly House’s annual breakfast event. (Charles Curcio / Stanly News Journal)

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By Charles Curcio

Stanly News Journal

ALBEMARLE — With April designated as Child Abuse Awareness Month, Stanly County’s local children’s advocacy center hosted its annual breakfast event to continue spreading awareness and connect with its partners.

Atrium Stanly’s Family and Education Center hosted the event this month, which was opened by Butterfly House executive director Amy Yow.

“Each of these folks ensure that we provide the best services for these kids that we serve in our community,” said Yow, thanking members of the various government agencies, law enforcement representatives, the Stanly Health Foundation and staff.

Yow, who has served as director of Butterfly House for 20 years, said the center is planning a larger celebration of the anniversary June 5.

The Butterfly House director then introduced the event’s keynote speaker, Justin Hefner, himself a survivor of child sexual abuse, to talk about children’s advocacy centers.

Hefner now serves as an advancement team coordinator and forensic interviewer at One Place in Jacksonville, which serves Onslow County.

“He is dedicated to serving children and changing lives that will ensure protection for the abused and not the abusers,” Yow said.

Hefner was born in Mooresville, the middle of three children, to a father who was a firefighter in Charlotte and a mother who managed a dental practice.

Growing up in Mecklenburg County, Hefner said he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child. In a video shown before his comments, one of the last scenes was Hefner in front of a trailer near his family’s property line.

In that trailer, he said, was where the grooming and abuse started at the hands of William Mark Rash, a youth minister serving at a local United Methodist Church.

Hefner’s family went on family trips with Rash and kept his refrigerator stocked with Yoo-hoo, Hefner said.

“Mark was abusing his role in the church to mask some hidden desires,” Hefner said. “My brother, myself and other young men were among those hidden desires.”

Hefner said Rash bought more things for him and his brothers and then started steering conversations to more adult topics.

One night while spending the night at Rash’s house, Hefner said Rash “decided to take those advances into a much more inappropriate place while I was asleep.” He said he froze up, feeling like he was 100 miles away from home when he was, in fact, close.

Hefner spoke with his younger brother after the incident, who at first did not remember that he was also a victim of abuse by Rash.

His family got involved with the local child advocacy center after contacting the sheriff’s office.

“What I did not know at the time is that there was an entire multidisciplinary team behind the two-way mirror,” Hefner said.

He was paired with a “really great, spiritually inclined counselor, one of the sweetest women in the entire world.”

But he did not want to be there, adding that he “just wanted to go home to go to practice, go home, eat a pack of Oreos with my brothers after school and fight over who was cheating more in the video games.”

At Rash’s church, Hefner said some members believed him, but some did not. Others simply ignored it.

“You could say sides were taken and lines were drawn in the sand,” Hefner said. “We weren’t sure who was a friend or a foe.”

Even more painful was when Rash was arrested; the new owner of Rash’s property was the person who bailed Rash out of jail.

As Hefner prepared for his day in court, Rash pled guilty and was sentenced to 16 to 20 months in prison after a diagnostic study took place of him in prison for 90 days. As conditions of the plea, Rash had to take part in a sex offender rehabilitation program and register as a sex offender once out of prison for 10 years.

Hefner shared an update on his story, noting he learned just this past year a friend of his took his own life two years ago after being abused by Rash.

“The child will be OK if they are believed,” Hefner said of the value of child advocacy centers. “They can get the treatment, they can get the services, they can get the support. They can be good again, even through my sins and struggles. I’m OK. A child advocacy center means resilience.”

Though Hefner said he had problems, including spending one night in jail and failing classes, he eventually earned a master’s degree and was part of NC State’s national championship cheerleading team in 2018.

“I can continue to be resilient, and again, I continue to be OK.”