I had my first legitimate after school job at age 14. It was in a butcher shop a few miles from my parents house. Most days i walked to work. The bulk of the walk was down a busy main road. I was about halfway in one day when a sports car with a slick guy driving whipped into the parking lot along side of where i was and motioned me over. He asked for directions to the interstate(which was aprox. 5 or 6 mi. straight ahead) I explained this to him, yet he insisted i jump in and show him. I said no and started away. He grabbed my arm and started to insist. Offered me drugs, hookers, money…told me “whatever i wanted” that he neede to be shown. I pulled away and pretty much ran the rest of the way to work. The experience has never left me, and the older i have gotten, realize EXACTLY how it would have ended. This is one more reason i am here fighting the good fight.

When I was 7 years old, I was walking home with my friend who was 9. A man approached us and pointed to a wooded area below and said he'd lost his puppy there and could we help. I was so little I would have gone but my friend grabbed my hand and told him we had to go home. She is still one of my dearest friends and I love to remind her of the day she saved my life. A few days after the encounter, the man was captured and jailed.