Last week's reopening of the Pasco Sheriff's Office children's resource room drew an excited crowd, including Sheriff Chris Nocco, Child Protective Investigative workers and others who helped make the redesign a success.

River Ridge Middle 7th grader Olivia Georgi also was in attendance, accompanied by her parents Janet and Otto Georgi.

And Olivia, who received a Citizen Service Award from the sheriff's office in April, had a surprise in store for her at Friday's ceremony.

A section of the room was named "Olivia's Corner" to honor her work collecting donations for Pasco's CPI unit for the past several years.

Another contributor to the redesign operation was BB&T, whose staff gave more than 600 volunteer hours and $5,000 in funding for the utilities and supplies in the room.

With more than 6,000 child abuse and neglect complaints under investigation by the CPI unit, the room is designed to give comfort to children whose world is turned upside down by abuse and/or a parent’s arrest.

"These children need as much help as possible because they are in a traumatic
situation," Sheriff Nocco said in a press release.  "Thanks to the support of BB&T and the dedicated work of our child protective investigators, this redesigned resource room will be an integral part of providing these victims comfort during this difficult time in their lives."