Kids Are Our Business Breakfast


I have learned in life that heroes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. I've yet to meet one that wears a cape, has a magic wand or owns a golden lasso. But I have been honored to get to know a variety of people who reach out to others when it seems their entire world is crumbling, who rise above extraordinary circumstances to stand stronger and accomplish more than even they themselves thought possible. At the "Kids are OUR Business" breakfast, a major fundraiser for the Fargo Moorhead Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, I was honored to watch a beautiful young woman become a hero to many. She has been a hero to me since the day we met.


Her name is Kaylee. I met her last year as she competed for the title of Miss Teen North Dakota International 2008 and then had the joy of getting to know her even better as she came back this year and tried again placing 3rd runner up and taking the interview award.
She is 15 years old and a rape survivor. On April 29, she shared her story of her stolen innocence at the sold out event.

She stood in front of a packed room poised, calm and confident and told complete strangers about how a family member repeatedly raped her over the course of several years.
She described how this affects her on a daily basis. How it affects her family and how she is, with the help of the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, her advocacy work and the love of her family, working daily to overcome the hell she lived through.
She told of how she chooses not to be controlled by it. She stood there and proclaimed that she will be stronger than her rapist and refuses to be defined by the experiences she has been forced to live through. She brought the room to their feet and many of us to tears.

At 15 I was desperately trying to pass algebra, achieve the perfect 6 inch high bang and figure out who I was. Kaylee is busy changing the world around her. She is fighting the stereotypes that surround rape and rape victims and she is doing it with a smile that lights up a room. Although I pray my daughters never have to live through what Kaylee has endured I know that if they turn out half as kind and have a quarter of her strength that there will be nothing in this world that can stop them.

I feel a hero is anyone working to stop the evil forces in our world. Kaylee is doing that everyday by being apart of this world and her golden lasso is her story of strength. She doesn't need an invisible plane or boom-a-rang bracelets she has her voice and she isn't afraid to use it.

THANK YOU KAYLEE!!! Thank you for being here with us and sharing your smile!
There is nothing in this world that can stop you from accomplishing anything you set your mind to do!

Comments

  1. AliceMay 21, 2009 at 7:31 PM

    What a touching story, I am sitting here in tears. She is amazing.

    ReplyDelete

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