All posts by: MADD Media
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 Helen Witty I had not so much as changed a diaper when doctors placed a squalling newborn on my chest after five hours of labor. It was the spring of 1984, the age of “natural childbirth,” and I’d delivered...
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...
By Delia Foster The spring of 2016 bloomed with promise. My husband and I were the proud parents of five grown children who had found their way in the world. Our youngest daughter, Rachel, was finishing her final semester of...
By Patricia Voelker They smile with the sun in their faces in that final group photograph. My grandson, Kelly McConnell, is at the center, bearded and broad-shouldered and handsome in his high school graduation gown. He stands between his stepbrothers,...
By Jenny Reyes For the last five years of his life, my father, Walter Reyes, rose at 4 a.m. each day to cycle a popular route that connects our home in Miami to the Florida Keys. He’d be back by...
By Helen Witty Each year, 4,300 teens die from using alcohol. That’s nearly a dozen families and communities needlessly shattered every single day. As a parent, there is something you can do to protect your child. And it’s easier than...
Forty years ago, a grieving mother set into motion a movement. On May 3, 1980, a drunk driver out of jail just two days following his fourth drunk driving arrest struck and killed 13-year-old Cari Lightner as she walked to...