The Second Mile asks to be dissolved

The Second Mile says it can no longer do its job.

In a petition filed in Centre County Orphans’ Court on Friday, the board of directors for the children’s charity filed a petition for distribution of assets and dissolution.

The Second Mile was founded by Jerry Sandusky in 1977, decades before he retired as defensive coordinator at Penn State and 35 years before he was convicted for 45 counts of various child sexual abuse charges. Sandusky’s victims came from the ranks of the at-risk boys being helped by the charity.

The original petition for distribution of assets was filed in October 2012, around the time that Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. For two years, there was a slow stream of court requests.

In 2013, the charity’s intellectual property, including its participant, donor and program databases and information, was transferred to another service organization, Arrow Child and Family Ministries, along with $200,000.

Another $300,000, plus computers and The Second Mile’s endowment fund were turned over to Arrow in July 2014.

The court allowed the sale of a chunk of undeveloped real estate in Patton Township in 2015. Developer Michael Lee purchased the property for $1.05 million for the creation of the Nittany Valley Sports Centre. A plan was brought before Patton Township supervisors in December for that project, which could see ground broken in the spring.

According to court documents, The Second Mile has remaining assets of $800,000.

“The current level of assets is not sufficient to maintain any programs for the benefit of the children previously served by The Second Mile,” the charity’s documents stated, adding that “the objects of The Second Mile have wholly failed and their accomplishment by The Second Mile is impracticable if not impossible.”

The document requested that the assets be turned over to the state attorney general, “who has agreed to accept the funds and hold them in escrow for appropriate disposition.”

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "The Second Mile asks to be dissolved."