VICTIM SUPPORT
Drunk/drugged drivers do not care about your age, race, religion, ethnicity, politics, social standing, likes, or dislikes: Impaired drivers simply do not care!
DEDICATEDD offers support to victims in many ways. Our trained victim advocates are available day and night. Some of the free services we offer are:
- Peer counseling
- Court accompaniment during the criminal trial
- Assistance with Victim Impact Statements if needed
- Letter writing campaigns at the time of sentencing
- Letter writing when offender becomes eligible for parole
- Accompaniment to parole board hearing
WE ARE DEDICATEDD TO ASSISTING VICTIMS
Butterflies
As DWI victims our “metamorphosis” often seems an impossible goal to attain. When an impaired driver kills our loved one, we are overwhelmed by grief and for a time lost in the darkness of despair. When a drunk/drugged driver seriously injures someone, that person also grieves for the one that has been taken, their pre-crash self. Grief is a long and arduous journey. But with the love and support of family and friends we reemerge, forever changed.
Butterflies are fragile creatures. At times, we may feel equally fragile. There are days when we would like to pull the covers over our heads and tell the world to go away and leave us alone. We learn that it is okay to have those days.
Butterflies also represent hope and new beginnings. Hope is what keeps DEDICATEDD’s mission alive. We know we can help others and educate many. We strive to change attitudes and prevent individuals from making the potentially lethal choice to drink or drug and drive. Often, we fight uphill battles. But, armed with hope and dedication we will continue to battle until we win the war.
The Mountain
a poem by Laura Ding-Edwards
If the mountain seems too big today
Then climb a hill instead.
If the morning brings you sadness
It’s ok to stay in bed.
If the day ahead weighs heavy
And your plans feel like a curse,
There’s no shame in rearranging,
Don’t make yourself feel worse.
If a shower stings like needles
And a bath feels like you’ll drown,
If you haven’t washed your hair for days,
Don’t throw away your crown.
A day is not a lifetime
A rest is not defeat,
don’t think of it as failure,
just a quiet, kind retreat,
It’s ok to take a moment
From an anxious, fractured mind,
The world will not stop turning
While you get realigned.
The mountain will still be there
When you want to try again,
You can climb it in your own time,
Just love yourself till then.
-Laura Ding-Edwards
The Solace Stone
(Author Unknown)
Our victims, crash survivors, friends, and victim advocates are working to move a mountain, stone by stone. For some, working to move the mountain has been a long journey, while others are just beginning their journey. Every time we remember our loved ones, reach out to others in pain, or live with hope for the future, we have successfully moved a pebble.
There is an often-told story in the Far East about the Chinese grandfather who, each day of his life, rose early, climbed to the top of the nearby mountain that blocked the early-morning sunlight, picked up a small stone, walked back down the mountain and dropped the pebble on the other side of a stream near his home. His son and grandson joined him in this task.
“Why do we do this?” the grandson asked.
“As long as you continue to do this and teach your children and grandchildren to carry the pebbles,” the grandfather promised, “We are going to move this mountain.”
The boy persisted, “But Grandfather, you’ll never see the mountain moved.”
The old man nodded, “Yes, but I know that someday it will be moved.”
When you are feeling sad, or discouraged, remember this story of the grandfather who pebble by pebble and stone by stone, was moving a mountain. In every pebble you move, you bring honor to loved ones who have been killed and crash survivors.
Tell your family, friends, and neighbors this story, and together as a community we will move the mountain and see the sunlight behind it.
A Life Sentence Without Justice
Offenders (those who kill, maim and devastate families) receive a limited sentence. They are then released from prison and live a normal life with their families and friends.
DWI offenders force a life sentence on innocent victims!
On holidays and birthdays, families visit their loved one by going to the cemetery.
Surviving crash victims spend months, years and sometimes a lifetime in pain.
Surviving crash victims often spend a long time receiving painful physical therapy to help them get back to as close to life before the crash as possible. Sometimes, despite intense physical therapy, near normal isn’t a reality. Some who were able bodied, before their crash, spend the rest of their life in a wheel chair or worse.