All posts by: MADD Media
By Alex Otte It might sound strange to say, but today, I celebrate 11 years since the day my life was forever changed because of one man’s wrong choice. I say “celebrate,” even though the day itself and the week...
I remember my mother in fragments. I know that her name was Terri and that she was 44 when I was born. I know that we lived in a one-bedroom apartment in San Diego, just the two of us and...
Millions of Americans are affected by crime every year, their lives forever altered by a specific moment in time, and for most, things will never be the same again. I don’t believe that there is any “getting back to normal”...
Two drunk drivers changed my family’s life forever. On April 10, 2016, my three children, 15-year-old Kaylee, 6-year-old Khaiden, 4-year-old Samuel, and I went to a housewarming party for Khaiden’s godbrother. It was a sunny day near Baton Rouge, Louisiana,...
In a hospital room where her daughter lies unconscious, a tearful mother shares what she has learned from doctors: the girls’ blood work has come back positive for alcohol. “She doesn’t even know how to drive,” the mother laments, “and...
By Alex Otte At age 13, I understood the consequences of drinking alcohol and getting behind the wheel. That’s how old I was when a drunk boater ran over me while I sat on a jet ski behind my dad’s...
Faith had reached her breaking point. After enduring months of cyber bullying, the young teen learned that an online admirer wasn’t an admirer at all — but a classmate playing a cruel prank. She swiped a bottle of tequila from...
By Prisca Patrick I was supposed to die first. Not John Michael, my smart, gregarious older brother who was beloved by everybody. I was 15 months old when doctors diagnosed me with Stage IV brain cancer. The largest tumor stuck...
By Erin Rollins For 10 days, faith had sustained me. It had sustained me through the excruciating pain and panic of an ambulance ride. It had sustained me as a team of doctors and nurses moved my broken body from...