Wow. The developments this week have really taken me by surprise. Welcome surprise, but still stressful. Here are some links to what I'm talking about:
KOIN News broadcast of 9/25/13: http://www.koin.com/2013/09/25/focused-on-the-road-campaign/
BikePortland article of 9/25/13: http://bikeportland.org/2013/09/25/new-website-is-latest-effort-from-mother-of-hit-and-run-victim-94393
And from a few weeks ago:
BikePortland again (I love BikePortland!): http://bikeportland.org/2013/08/23/how-can-oregon-make-hit-and-run-feel-as-evil-as-drunk-driving-92885
KPTV News broadcast of 8/23/13: http://www.kptv.com/story/23244950/mother-of-hit-and-run-victim-offers-support-to-henry-schmidts-family
I thought I had just been coasting along, going relatively unnoticed (I even took August off, to focus on mourning Dustin), but apparently things were percolating behind the scenes. This is what I've wanted, truly, it's just scary. I'm just a mom who can't stand to let the death of my son go, who doesn't want the pain my family feels to be echoed in the hearts of other families. And most of all, who doesn't want Dustin to be forgotten.
My Wednesday was planned out ahead of time: Work till 12:30, attend the unveiling ceremony of the Memorial Wall for Murder Victims in Oregon City at 1:00, and attend the National Remembrance Day for Victims of Murder and Vehicular Homicide in Woodland at 6:30.
I worked, as planned. I attended the unveiling as planned. Not planned was approaching guest speaker and award-winning victim advocate Steve Doell and saying, "What more can I do?" His response was that our meeting must have been "providence" because he's been looking for people to testify before the legislature about proposed changes in sentences, including hit-and-run and vehicular homicide. So I was pretty stoked about that... even though Steve is apparently a controversial person whose politics I may not totally agree with.
At home I saw an email from the woman who set up the Faces of Fatalities website, saying I had gotten a message from a KOIN News reporter. She gave him my numbe and he had sent me a text asking for an interview. I scheduled that with him and hurriedly called Mary Cooley, mother of hit-and-run victim Mike Cooley, whom I had met just the week before at a benefit to help raise money for needed home renovations (to accommodate his wheelchair, since he is now paralyzed). She dropped everything and we were able to do the interview together, which generated renewed publicity for Mike's case, which has not been solved. This type of collaboration and pooling of voices is exactly what I've been hoping for over the past two years.
Once I was home again, I spent quite some time answering an email to Jonathan Maus of BikePortland, who had written a few days prior that he had just become aware of my website and would like to do an article. It wasn't until this morning that I learned he had already posted the article yesterday. And quite the article, too, as you can see from the link above. Then I went to my own website which I had done virtually nothing with because I thought no one was paying attention anyway and there was a request from KPAM for an interview and in my email there was a request from KATU! Not only that, there were comments from a few people who don't even live around here,one referencing a hit-and-run in Chico, CA, another commenting about ghostbikes.
I hope I have it within me to do what needs to be done now. My husband thinks I do. (Thanks, honey! You are terrific support)!
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