This marker in the Sunset Memory Gardens bears the name of Melisha Gibson who was a victim of child abuse and died in October 1976.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A little girl’s legacy lives on, helping other children caught up in the legal system, decades after her death as a victim of child abuse.
CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocates for children, holds its second Moonlight Walk for Melisha Gibson on Thursday. The walk is a fundraiser to help pay expenses for trained volunteers who watch after a child’s interest during a court case.
Currently 20 volunteers are advocating for 50 children in Bradley County courts.
CASA, a nationwide organization, began taking cases here in 2008 with support from Judge Daniel Swafford. Since then, volunteers have advocated for over 200 abused or neglected children here, said Suzanne Wisdom, director of the local program.
“We receive no money from the county, city or state government,” Wisdom said. “We are completely funded by community support.” That includes a grant from the United Way of Bradley County’s Bradley Memorial Hospital Endowment Fund to launch the program.
CASA officials worried last year about linking Melisha Gibson’s name to the fundraising walk because of the horrible way in which she died in the 1970s.
“But with the work that we do every day, we knew that honoring her life was absolutely the right thing,” Wisdom said.
The walk begins Thursday at 7 p.m. on the Bradley/Cleveland Greenway at the playground near Raider Drive. The walk goes to the Prayer Garden at the Church of God International Headquarters campus. There, the Cleveland High School choir performs.
“We try to do this close to her birthday,” said board chairman Kelli Bilyeu.
Melisha was four years old when she died in October 1976. The case gained national attention as one of the earliest to focus on child abuse and creating tougher laws.
“It is a case that will never go away for me,” said Larry Wallace, former state trooper, McMinn County sheriff and Tennessee TBI commissioner and now senior vice president at Tennessee Wesleyan College. Feelings were so high in Cleveland that Melisha’s mother and stepfather were held at the McMinn County Jail.
It was all the more poignant for him, Wallace said, because he went to elementary school with Melisha’s mother.
“To this day, whenever we talk about battered women and abused children, I always refer to that case,” Wallace said.
Taking part in the walk is $15 for students; $25 for other participants and $50 for families.