This past Sunday I woke up at 4:45AM and put on my Wonder Woman socks and stood in my dark kitchen while the rest of the house slumbered.
I snapped a photo.
Jeri, who heads up The Conor Lynch Foundation, invites runners to dress up as super heroes because as she puts it, don't we need more super heroes on our streets?
I knew that I would be meeting some families who had flown in from across the states who had lost children to distracted drivers. I felt a little strange, as if I didn't have a right to campaign for safer streets since I haven't lost a child. Thank God and hope to never, ever.
Yes, I lost my great friend and mourn her but I know a child would be different.
I arrived to Sherman Oaks and it was still dark.
It was also quiet.
I saw a few people setting up wearing their bright orange running shirts with Conor's images on the front. I saw some balloons being unloaded from a van and then I saw those little neon yellow safety guys who hold the red flag that says SLOW.
I saw signs that said "Drive Like Your Kids Live Here" and "Keep Kids Alive Drive 25" and I was flooded with excitement and conviction that I wasn't crazy for my small philantrophic endeavors over here on Fix The Toaster.
I saw some women setting up the memorial garden they had in place. Pictures of people who had died due to distracted drivers.
People seemed to set up their booths quietly and I felt very excited to be surrounded by like minded people yet also saddened knowing the majority of us had lost people to distracted driving.
Dawn broke and the LA sun came up and warmed us up.
Runners lined up and one woman was sort of hanging by my booth. I decided to say hello and talk to her about Fix The Toaster. So I know this is kind of weird I said, meaning my site's name and she said, it's not weird at all.
Then she proceeded to tell me how her cousin's 9 year-old son was walking in NYC on January 10th, which happens to be my birthday, of this year, holding his dad's hand, when a cab driver blew through the cross walk and killed the boy.
She said her cousin has become a road safety activist.
I had actually heard of this story as it made national headlines.
Beautiful Cooper Stock.
I told her how sorry I was and was in awe that, that was the first person I talked to.
I left my booth to go hear the speakers kick off the event.
Jeri stood up there in her super hero costume and said "We can't bring Conor back but we can make a difference for the rest of us," can you imagine as a mother saying that? How powerful Jeri is, honestly she's beyond.
Then she had her friends Davide and Leigh Kouchner speak and David had us raise our hands and pledge not to touch our phones while driving, "There's no reason to touch your phone while you are driving," said David.
Then Ben Vereen got up. Ben had me wiping away tears into my gray hoodie.
He said he had lost someone and was a survivor himself.
I Googled him, he lost hi 16 year-old daughter, Naja, in 1987 when a truck overturned on her car.
“It shattered us as a family,” Vereen said. “I lost a daughter, and that’s something you never, ever get over. I couldn’t handle it. I wanted to kill myself; that’s how I fell into drugs.” Vereen developed a cocaine addiction, entered rehab and struggled to regain his sobriety. ”
Then, I'm getting chills just writing this, in 1992 he was the victim of a life-threatening accident when we has struck by a car driven by record producer David Foster while walking along a Malibu highway.
He was up there, almost preaching, if not us, who? He kept saying. If we don't do something about it, then who will?
Then some people released yellow balloons in honor of deceased loved ones and it was just raw.
I met Eileen and Paul Miller who lost their son Paul to a distracted driver. Eileen is small in stature but mighty in strength. She sent the distracted driver to jail but only because she persevered, used her mama bear intuition and some signs from Paul from above.
I met mom Elissa Schee who lost her beautiful daughter Margay when a person talking on their phone plowed into her bus and it caught on fire.
“Three years for killing Margay?” Elissa Schee said, referring to the prison sentence that Reinaldo Andujar-Gonzalez received Thursday for vehicular homicide and reckless driving.
”What’s my sentence? It’s a life sentence of missing Margay.”
”
I met a few fathers who had started their projects to promote safe driving just by having kids. Neither of them had lost children to distracted driving. This really made an impression on me.
Father's such as Tom Everson, whom I'm talked about extensively on the site because he makes those great "Keep Kids Alive Drive 25" signs. He said the program has been around a long time but has lost a lot of funding due to the economy collapse in 2008.
I met another dad who has started the Text Kills bus. He said his oldest daughter and I think he said he had 3 of them was texting a lot and he was worried about her so he started this.
Wade Morgan was there, a texting car crash survivor. I wish I had talked to him. I just read his story, you can too, his girlfriend was texting and driving when he was in a horrendous crash.
My husband, mother-in-law and three kids all joined me.
My oldest looked over the memorial garden and asked, were they distracted or did someone distracted kill them?
As we drove home I asked him, what do you think of mommy doing all of this for distracted driving? I mean do you think about it?
I thought he might answer, it is weird.
He was silent.
Then I said, do you think it will effect the way you drive?
Yeah, came his voice solemnly from the back.
That's all I can hope for.
I wish there were more events like this. I wish more people would have showed up. It's the #1 cause of death to our young.
If after reading this you are still using your phone when you drive you really should just re-read it and think about all these parents and their beautiful kids no longer with them.
Driving drowsy, speeding and tailgating are all a part of it too.
Thank you Jeri for this event. It meant a lot to me. It was my first time gathering with like minded people and it blew me away.