Dottie Returns to Hico, Texas
We walked away with knowledge of how to battle for our children. Thank you, Dottie,” posted by Jessie Minter one of the hosts of the event where Dottie spoke about Human Trafficking.
Hico, Texas is at the northern edge of the Texas Hill Country and has much to offer both locals and visitors, including the infamous Billy the Kid Museum. I was recently invited to speak there by long term friend Jessie Minter.
Jessie and I met about 20 years ago when I first began my work on human trafficking. She was referred to me by someone at Catholic Charities who said I was the only person in Houston who knew how to help her. Jessie was working with a property company that owned apartment complexes around the Houston area. They held ice cream parties to meet the residents and learn what they needed from the property management and for management to learn what was working and what needed improvement. This was a time when many properties had failed, and the cities gave incentives to apartment owners to improve their communities. Jessie was the leader of these ice cream parties and as a Spanish speaker she was the voice of the residents.
At most ice cream parties hundreds of people participated, however at one location only two people showed up for the party. When Jessie asked one of those two people what she could do to get more partisans, they said get AIDS education.
Jessie thought ok, I can do that. That led her to Catholic Charities and luckily the man who answered her call, sensed that she had a trafficking ring in the apartments and referred her to me. In a team effort with Jessie, the apartment owners, and some great laws enforcement officials, eighteen people were rescued. They had been being prostituted, many were minors, some had died before we were contacted. Jessie is a hero, and she never has acknowledged the word cannot.
This first encounter led to a 20-year friendship. Last Saturday Jessie hosted me to her town of Hico, Texas. It is a small town in North Central Texas. Jessie gifted to her town the information I brought about protecting children and young adults from traffickers.
We were so fortunate to have parents, their children, church members and a police officer from the Hico Police Department attend. We even had an attendee from San Antonio make a special effort to attend. It was a round table discussion along with my speech. Everyone was given my book 55 Things Parents and Grandparents Should Know as a gift from Jessie. Extras were left to be distributed to the Fire Department, and the local churches. This makes another small town that has declared we are protecting our children and declaring that we are hostile to human traffickers!
“Clear! Interesting and productive. We walked away with knowledge of how to battle for our children. Thank you, Dottie” Jessie Minter