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Company steps up for assault victim

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BY YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yahammett@tampatrib.com

Published: September 9, 2009

EDITOR'S NOTE: Guy Harvey Inc. asked The Tampa Tribune to deliver an autographed Gators national championship T-shirt and poster and to extend on its behalf a special invitation to a young woman who was brutally assaulted in 2008 at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library.

BRANDON - A young woman whose life is mostly limited to her bedroom and visits to therapists is getting a special treat next month.

The teen, raped and brutally beaten at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library in 2008, is unable to speak and can barely see. She undergoes physical and speech therapy weekly.

But her mind is still very active and she's excited about the news, her mother said.

Guy Harvey Inc., an iconic company best known for the colorful shirts it sells depicting ocean fish from around the world, is sending her and her family to Gator Growl and homecoming at the University of Florida in October.

Because of the nature of the attack, the Tribune is not identifying the girl, who had been accepted at UF a short time before the attack. The man accused in the assault, 18-year-old Kendrick Morris of Clair Mel City, remains in jail awaiting trial with no bail set. He is charged with four counts of sexual battery, robbery, kidnapping and other offenses related to the attack and the unrelated assault of a day care worker.

The 19-year-old expressed excitement when her mother held up an autographed Gators national championship T-shirt and poster, explaining that renowned wildlife artist Guy Harvey had signed them.

A recent update in the Tribune on the young woman's progress caught the attention of Tampa native Steve Stock, president of Guy Harvey Inc., a major sponsor of this year's homecoming activities.

Stock, a UF grad himself, whose daughter is a senior there, arranged for the VIP visit to Florida Field.

The young woman and her family will travel to Gainesville Oct. 15 to spend three days attending Gator Growl, an event that includes music, comedy, skits and personal appearances by members of the Gator football team. She will also attend the homecoming game against the Arkansas Razorbacks and, her mother said, get a visit from friends now attending the university.

Shortly after Stock contacted the teen's mother, she broke the news to her daughter.

"She screamed so loud, like I never heard before," her mother said. "This makes her so happy. We want to make her happy."

Stock said he was horrified after hearing about the attack.

"When I first read her story in August while I was in Tampa visiting my folks, it was like somebody punched me in the gut," Stock said. "I related to the story on a very personal level."

Florida Blue Key, the student organization that produces the homecoming festivities, is helping to arrange for a hotel and tickets for the teenager and five family members.

Stock said he's not sure he can arrange for the young woman to meet Gator quarterback Tim Tebow, as the family requested. But he and Blue Key members are working on it.

Meanwhile, the Gators remain part of her life, even in the confines of her bedroom.

She wears a tiny silver, orange and blue Gator football around her neck, courtesy of UF's Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

And then there's the sports page hanging on her wall, prominently displaying Tebow's picture.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 627-4763.

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