by Xochitl Campos
Daily Lobo
The owner of Scalo in Nob Hill wants to put his money to good use.
Steve Paternoster said he will donate a portion of Wednesday's sales to Tiny Stars, an organization dedicated to exposing and stopping the commercial sexual exploitation of children around the world.
"Whenever someone comes through the door, we're just going to give them (Tiny Stars) a 20 percent cut," he said. "If people support it and come out for it, I'd love to see us write a check for $18 to $20,000. I'd be happy about that."
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The money raised will go to prosecute sexual predators who go to brothels in foreign countries and exploit children, said Jake Collins, founder of Tiny Stars.
Collins founded Tiny Stars in 2001.
The organization helped pass the PROTECT act of 2003, making it illegal for a U.S. citizen to sexually exploit children in brothels and prostitution rings while overseas, Collins said.
Since then, Tiny Stars has been raising money to pay agents in foreign countries to investigate and build cases against U.S. citizens who exploit children abroad, he said.
The biggest problem is people don't give money because they don't know about the law or the organization, Collins said.
"We would catch, in one day, 100,000 pedophiles across America if we had the funding," he said.
Paternoster said he became interested in supporting the group when he learned about its initiatives.
"I think we all have a vested interest in this," he said. "These men don't care about what happens to these kids. They use them and break them and then throw them away."
Paternoster said he hopes to make a difference for those children Wednesday.
"They are figuring out ways to thwart this trade, and they are working on laws to increase the penalties for crimes against children," he said. "It is to make people that go in and out of these places more accountable."
The objective for Wednesday's event is not to bombard customers with facts, but to make them aware of what they can do to fight the problem, Collins said.
"We don't need to hear about any more problems. We need to learn about more solutions," he said. "I want them to understand that this is not just a problem, but a problem we can deal with and that we have solutions for."
