Donations for abused baby swamp office

Revised October 15, 2001

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001

TAMPA -- A day after asking the public for help in providing a 10-month-old rape victim with food, diapers and clothes, the offices of the Department of Children and Families were inundated with donations.

Donors started arriving at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. By 2:30 p.m., a vacant office had been filled wall-to-wall with enough car seats, toys, stuffed animals, walkers, musical mobiles, diapers, diaper bags, blankets, books, booster seats, playpens and clothes to outfit an entire nursery of infants.

"People have come by the office and said, "I'm on my way to Target, what do you need,' " DCF spokeswoman Shawnna Lee said.

Among the donors was Bill Sterner, an unemployed, 52-year-old software contractor from Tampa. He asked for help unloading the trunk of his car with $190 worth of baby items.

He went to a Babies 'R Us store, told the manager he had no idea what babies needed and let the staff there load him up. They gave him a discount when they learned who the items were for, he said.

The little girl has been in DCF custody since being kidnapped, assaulted and rescued Sept. 22. Randolph Standifer, a 20-year-old friend of her family's, has been charged with capital sexual battery, kidnapping and attempted murder. Investigators said he raped and strangled her, then left her for dead in the woods.

The child is not being identified by the Times to protect her privacy.

She arrived Thursday afternoon to help choose the items she lacked. Her foster mother, who didn't want to be identified, cried at the sight of the donations. She and her husband are foster parents for two infants, both considered medically needy.

A trust fund for her future medical needs has been set up at the Century Bank of Tampa at 13540 N Florida Ave., Tampa, Fla., 33613. For the purpose of receiving donations, the child is being called "Baby Ann," although that is not her real name. Checks should be made out to Century Bank with a notation that they're for the Baby Ann fund.

Lee said donations of food and diapers still would be welcome.

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