Let's do something to help prevent sexual abuse and promote greater awareness. Photo by Arianna Marchesani.

I think one of the best things about the community of football fans is its generosity with good causes. I think in light of the events at Penn State, I’d like to remind everyone that one of the organizations I had scheduled to donate a share of the revenue from the 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio is Darkness to Light.

[Just to be clear, while I would love for you to buy the RSP if you haven’t in the past – and I’m certainly going to use this as a way to make your decision a bit easier. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s more important that you donate to reputable organizations that focus on the prevention of these types of crimes – RSP or not.]

I found Darkness to Light on Charity Navigator last year and chose it based on its mission:

“Darkness to Light is a national organization and initiative. Our mission is to empower people to prevent child sexual abuse. Darkness to Light’s public awareness campaign seeks to raise awareness of the prevalence and consequences of child sexual abuse.

Again, even if you don’t purchase the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication I encourage you to find an organization like Darkness to Light or RAIN to assist.

If you are an annual reader of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publications, I had a poll available on this page for you to determine how much of the allocated percentage of sales revenue I donate to Darkness to Light. I’ve decided instead that I’m going to play benevolent dictator on this decision. I’m giving that percentage solely to Darkness to Light.

Even if you don’t have the dough to spare, you can donate something far more important: your time and willingness to learn how to prevent this from happening in your life. This weekend, I have added pages to help us learn about this epidemic in our society and how to minimize its impact in our homes and communities. If you can learn football stats you should commit some of these stats about sexual abuse to memory. Once you read the facts, learn how to protect children from becoming another statistic.

I think as football fans it’s a good idea we send a message that while we get idiotic about the sport, we’re not a complete bunch of idiots.