Second Mile CEO: Closing one option 
 
 The Second Mile, the charity founded by former Penn State University defensive coordinator and accused child molester Jerry Sandusky, could close its doors by the end of the year, according to the group's new CEO, David Woodle. 
 
 Mr. Woodle said closing the charity's programs for at-risk youths is one option, but that two other possibilities exist: continuing to run scaled-down versions of its programs or transferring the programs to other nonprofit groups. 
 
 Leaders of the State College-based charity began talking with the group's largest donors this week to find out if they will continue supporting The Second Mile, he said. 
 
 Many are still trying to decide, while others have pulled their support. 
 
 "Look, we're facing an uphill battle, but we want these programs to survive," Mr. Woodle said. "If we just don't have any support, they may have to go away, but we're working hard to make sure that doesn't happen." 
 
 Until his resignation in September 2010 -- by which time he had been under grand jury investigation for months -- Mr. Sandusky had been the group's primary fundraiser. The charity has annual revenue of about $2.9 million, and about 20 staff members in three offices. 
 
 The New York Times reported Friday that leaders of The Second Mile plan to dissolve the charity and possibly transfer its programs to a small number of nonprofit groups. It also reported that the nonprofit's board of directors had agreed to hire Lynne Abraham and the law firm Archer & Greiner to independently investigate the extent of Mr. Sandusky's contact with the program's children, when the charity learned of allegations against Mr. Sandusky and how it responded. 
 
 Ms. Abraham served as Philadelphia's district attorney from 1991 to 2010. As a prosecutor, she led a five-year investigation into sexual abuse by priests in Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Woodle, who was interviewed by the Times for its story, spoke with other news organizations later in the day to refute the claim that a decision had been made, saying closure was just one of the charity's possible steps forward. 
 
 The question of just how long The Second Mile can continue operating is difficult to answer because some donors are still contributing, and the group has some flexibility in what programs continue operating and at what level, Mr. Woodle said. But he promised that a decision would be made by end of the year, if not before. 
 
 "This won't drag on," he said. 
 
 Mr. Sandusky was charged Nov. 5 with 40 counts of sexually abusing eight young boys, and currently is free on bail. 
 
 The charity's former CEO, Jack Raykovitz, testified to the investigating grand jury that he was notified in 2002 that a Penn State football staff member had reported seeing Mr. Sandusky in the football building's showers with a boy, that it had made the staff member uncomfortable and that subsequently Mr. Sandusky had been barred from bringing Second Mile children onto campus. Mr. Raykovitz resigned on Sunday after 28 years as the group's chief executive. 
 
 Amy McConnell Schaarsmith: aschaarsmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1719. 
 
 First published on November 19, 2011 at 12:44 am ||||| On Sunday, the charity’s board of directors authorized the hiring of Lynne M. Abraham and the law firm Archer & Greiner to conduct an independent investigation into the Second Mile. The investigation will seek to discover the extent of contact Sandusky had with children who went through the program, when the program learned about various allegations against Sandusky, and how it handled them. 
 
 According to testimony given before a grand jury in Harrisburg, Pa., Penn State’s athletic director, Tim Curley, informed the charity’s chief executive in 2002 that Sandusky had been directed not to bring youngsters onto the Penn State campus after a graduate assistant reported that Sandusky had engaged in inappropriate conduct with a boy in a shower. (The graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, testified that he was far more specific and told administrators that he saw Sandusky raping the boy.) 
 
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 Woodle declined to answer questions about what, if anything, was done after that. Nor would he say if the charity took steps to limit or monitor Sandusky’s interactions with the program’s youths after Sandusky himself informed the Second Mile in 2008 that he was under investigation for a separate incident involving inappropriate behavior. Woodle said that those were matters that fall under the scope of Abraham’s investigation. He said the board would publicly address those issues and others, but not before she finishes her inquiry, which he said he expected to take until the end of the year. 
 
 “The board agrees that these are good questions,” said Woodle, the board’s vice chairman. 
 
 Abraham served as the district attorney for Philadelphia from 1991 until last year. A tough-minded prosecutor who frequently sought the death penalty, she earned the nicknames Deadliest D.A. and Queen of Death. 
 
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 Abraham, now a partner at Archer & Greiner, led a five-year investigation into sexual abuse by priests in Philadelphia. 
 
 Sandusky has maintained his innocence in the case, but since a televised interview on Monday night he has remained out of the public eye. His lawyer said in a television interview that Sandusky was fearful that he would not be able to lead a normal life, noting that Sandusky’s home in State College was vandalized Thursday night for the second time in the past week. 
 
 Woodle said he heard from numerous people who had called to express hope that the Second Mile’s programs would continue, but he added that a number of donors said they could no longer support the foundation, which had roughly $9 million in assets in the year ending Aug. 31, 2010. The Second Mile reached thousands of children through educational outreach and mentoring programs. 
 
 Several board members have expressed dismay that the allegations against Sandusky were minimized whenever they were brought up, according to people on the board. They are also concerned that after they were told that Sandusky would not be at the Second Mile’s events, he nonetheless appeared at the annual golf fund-raiser in June. 
 
 While declining to go into detail about complaints the charity has received, Woodle said it was natural for people to ask, “How come I didn’t know about this earlier?” noting, “That’s a sentiment that exists across the country right now.” 
 
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– In the not-so-surprising department, the charity at the center of the Penn State rape allegations may shut down. The chief of Second Mile tells the New York Times that the charity is looking into how to transfer its money to other nonprofits that help disadvantage kids. He later tempered that by saying the organization was reaching out to its major donors to see whether there was any way to salvage it. "Look, we're facing an uphill battle, but we want these programs to survive," David Woodle the the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "If we just don't have any support, they may have to go away, but we're working hard to make sure that doesn't happen." Jerry Sandusky founded the charity in 1977 and had been the group's main fundraiser until he resigned in September 2010. Authorities say he used it to groom his victims, and Second Mile officials were reportedly notified of concerns about Sandusky's behavior in 2002. The charity has hired an outside law firm to investigate its handling of the case, and the inquiry is being led by former Philadelphia DA Lynne Abraham.