THE HISTORY OF D.C.A.C. METRIE'S RIDE FOR KIDS

Michael's Story... 

As parents we think we know everything there is to know about raising good strong, healthy children, then something extreme happens, you quickly realize what you thought you knew as a parent is obsolete and irrelavent... it all goes by the way side because life or raising children did not come with instruction booklets.  There is not a guide on how to cope with the tragedy, murder or the stresses of a little boy who is two years old and knows his mother and father are  gone. A little boy who isn’t sure why, how, or who. He only knows what he can make sense of. He will soon only know how to act out.

This is the instruction book we would write on the subject "Tragedy."   

Michael was 2 when my sister was murdered and this would embark a huge obstacle for all of us to overcome, a test of faith and a tribulation that only GOD pulled us through.  And included in the list of possibilities of coming out of this in one piece and somewhat sane is the Denver Children's Advocacy Center. 

Michael has received therapy at the Center for over 22 months.  During these months Michael would learn who murdered his mother, he would learn to redirect his own anger and aggressions, recognize his emotions and take responsibility for his actions.  This now 4 year old is much wiser than most 30 year olds I have ever known and just as responsible. 

Not only has the Denver Children's Advocay Center  provided one on one therapy with Michael as well as with each of us family members that were struggling with the death of my sister; but they have also provided play and puppy therapy with Michael to help him work through his trauma.  We have leanred ways to support Michael and each other through his grief as well as our own.

Violence in familes is all too common - it is a cycle that has no economic, race, religion or gender boundary or bias. 

Michael is 1 of 18 children treated at DCAC in 2005 after experiencing the violent death of his mother and the incarceration of his father.  However, not all families are like us...  We chose to make a difference with our tragedy, we chose instead, not to pass judgement (that is for GOD), not to make accusations and recriminations because Micael is loved by both his maternal and paternal families.

Instead we chose to forgive my brother-in-law and include his paternal grandmother in his upbringing as well as his therapy sessions.  One day Michael will be a man, one day he will have questions and decisions of his own that need to be made.  He will need to make them as a man of his own mind and free will, not that of any other. 

Instead, we chose to make the Denver Children's Advocacy Center our priority... as they made us theirs.

My sister was Dometria Carbajal - hence "Metrie's Run" and she would have wanted things done this way if she were alive, she would have wanted our priority to be for the children and about the children...  And this is how I pay tribute to her...

I honor her by maintaing a healthy life for her son Michael.  She is gone, nothing I do will bring her back, so until I see my baby sister at the Pearly Gates I have to make this life about the one precious posession she has left behind... a boy named Michael.

Our cause is not just about Michael or my sister, it is about those other 18 just like Michael and the 1,000 victims of physical/sexual abuse and the 500 victims of confirmed incest in the state.  It is about taking accountability for the actions of the adults in this state that have abused the undying trust a child has in someone they believe is their PROTECTOR. 

This is why PALADIN supports the Denver Children's Advocacy Center, for those who are to weak to speak up, for those that do not have a voice and to empower these children of unsolicited circumstance with the fact that there is a group of people that feel their pain and will fight for a chance of hope and will believe they have an opportunity to live a healthy and normal life as possible.

YOUR CHILD'S CHANCES OR
THE CHANCES OF A CHILD YOU KNOW (very startling):
Chances in becoming an ATHLETE 1 in 1,000,000
Chances in becoming a ROCK STAR 1 in 500,000
Chances of a boy being MOLESTED 1 in 7
Chances of a girl being MOLESTED 1 in 3

Our children are a greater risk of falling victim to a predator than they are of becoming what they have dreamed of.