........Faded Legacy........

We are all aware I am the master of thinking of the oddest of names for a website of a blog, and sadly when it comes to a screen name on a message board I freeze and pick the dumbest things. But that is honestly neither here nor there.

I think since I started the blog up once more but am doing it for another purpose it would be wise for myself to explain that. Because if anyone besides Annie (Hi there!) reads this they may wish to know.

I've been working on a "project" so to speak for the past few months, it pretty much goes with the whole Human Services kick, a few friends of mine from school have also been working with this with me. I guess it's more of an organization than a project at this point since the Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable organizations and the IRS section have declared we don't have to file anything since we do not nor will we in the future (at least right now) need donations or government grants we can run as an organization.

The organization is called Faded Legacy. Ta-Dah! It's not a great name, but "Bridge over troubled water" was too long to go with and the others just rolled their eyes at me. So we'll deal with this.

The organization in sort is a "help" outlet, a beacon so to speak for parents and at times teens. Mainly our beginning goal was to help Parents locate their runaway/unruly teen that has left home without permissions. The org started with our first case back in November when a friend of mine's relative was having trouble with their Daughter, she is 14 and thinks she has life figured out and anything her parents tell her is just ignorance in her opinion. My friend told me everyone was concerned but had no idea what to do, no idea where she was and no one was saying much of anything. My first instinct was to tell her that she should immediately call the police file a missing person report, and then contact the Department of Human Services (CPS) and see how they could help.

About a few days later I inquired about the status of the case of my friend's relative she stated that they called the police and filed a report but that the police basically told her "We'll keep an eye out, but most times they return home on their own". What kind of crap is that?? A mother goes into the police station frantic and in tears and you tell her "Eh, who cares?" Basically. She's 14 and who knows who she left with or where she ended up. I found that disgusting. I asked if she also contacted DHS and she stated they have an appointment. You neglect your child and they are there that evening no matter the time, you call and say you cannot find your child and need help? They make an appointment. I realize those services are booked to the core but really?

I decided to go that evening after work with my friend to her relative's home. I tried to talk to her to get information out of her about what her daughter's actions were before she left, did they have a fight? Was she involved with anyone? Before answering my list of questions she looked up at me and asked me if I was going to help her. The look in her eyes was just something I cannot explain nor was I able to answer anything other than "I'll try". With that she and her husband immediately rattled off everything they could think of from friends, to people in school she was known to have a problem with to even digging through phone records to see what they could gather. With that I took the information I had and told them I would let them or my friend be updated as I knew anything.

After that visit I immediately jumped on the computer and searched everything I knew to search I typed the various names I had been given into the search button and a few times into myspace pages, I came up with a few hits that were able to get the ball rolling for the family. After what seemed like hours of searching I finally landed on what I thought "might" be something to look into, a myspace posting from a guy about 5 years old than she is stating on his site in blogs about he loved hanging out with "her" out in Reading, Pa, I was able to trace his profile back to hers to find they had exchanged comments on their page as well. And a few comments of him stating "Ur rents are bogus u shud ditch em..lol (sic)". That comment was all I needed to dig further on, after almost a day of searching I by some luck stumbled upon a cell phone number that was registered thru Verizon services to this guy that had posted on her myspace. With that I set up a Yahoo Account that wasn't easily traceable to myself and sent a SMS message to the phone number, completely innocent but at the same time not scaring away anyone. It had worked, but instead of the guy texting me back it ended up being the GIRL texting me back. I soon learned after all of this that the guy bought her a pre paid phone so he could keep in touch since her parents took her cell phone from her a while ago. After scoring that tid bit of information I didn't proceed any further. I couldn't call the number because I feared if she saw a phone number pop up that had the same area code of her family she would think something was up and not answer. Instead I went to school..

Where I met up with a good friend of mine there who just happens to live in Reading Pa. I told him the story of what happened and what was going on and I asked if he would mind if I borrowed his cell phone to try and contact the girl and see where she was and try to coax her into going home. He eagerly said yes but took it a step further and said if I didn't mind he would like to help and would call the number for me since he knows the area to a T he may be able to pick up on any sounds going on around her that he may be familiar with and help us pinpoint a location for her. I was completely down for it, and adding help to the search would make it easier on myself plus the added brainstorming is a huge plus. After class we decided to meet up with each other and work out what to say, how to approach it and so on.

After class and after work he came over and the brainstorming started, he reviewed the documents and web pages I was able to pull up on both her, her friends and this lowlife. With that Andy said he was all set and knew what to say and how to get her to talk to him without realizing what is going on. He got on his phone and in a really calm voice some how initiated a conversation and it wasn't one that just lasted a couple minutes and that was it, it had went on for at least 15 minutes. The entire time thinking "Damn, If I were a cop I could have had a trace on this call by now". But of course I'm not Jack Malone so that didn't happen. Instead Andy miraculously was able to talk to her and find out her location. Not a "general" area, but an EXACT location. She told Andy that he could come over sometime and that she staying with a friend of a friend. This "friend" was female so that eased our worry a bit but knowing the lowlife was still around we knew we couldn't just sit on this information. Before thinking of what our next action would be I told Andy I had to call her Mom, he thought the phone call might be a little premature seeing how yes we know where she is but that's not to say she will be there, or was even telling the truth. But the fact that I knew her Mom was in tears since the day she ranaway and everyone had told her that they basically were too busy to help, and telling her I would keep her in the know but hadn't called in a couple days... I had to call her. If nothing more than to ease her mind and at least let her know her daughter is "okay", and someone did care.

After some talking I was finally to convince Andy that I needed to call her. While this was initially my thing and I was the one who made the vow to help; Andy now was apart of it and every step had to be covered. I called her up, totally ignoring the time it was about 11:30pm at this point but she didn't care. The moment she heard my voice she asked "Is she okay?" I told her our progress and that we did talk to her and that she "sounded" okay. In that second the tears on her end started again but I don't think they were tears of a worrying Mother, I think it was more of being happy someone did care enough to help and was making progress. I told her the information I gathered and told her that Andy has stepped into help. She was ecstatic thru her tears and had told me she called the police several times trying to get them to do something but each call being a failed try, and the DHS appointment went just as bad they told her that they don't have the manpower to go on a "goose hunt" but when she returns home they could help keep her in "control". She said she felt like it was hopeless until our call. I can't imagine the stress she had been going thru at that point, she's in her years at age 51 not old but at the same time this stress isn't making her any better nor is it doing her any good at this point. She has two other children one is a daughter 18, and another a son 24 both were deployed last year the daughter was shipped off to South Korea and the son to Iraq. She's not a fool either she knows her other 2 children may not make it home so loosing her 14 year old daughter just added more pain to her and the family.

After that call ended Andy was ready to go. I wasn't sure if we were going to go out to Reading that evening or wait on it and plan how it would go about. But Andy wanted to go, he also got on the phone to talk to her Mom, he wanted to let him know personally that he was supporting her and would help her. Hearing her being upset was all it took to get Andy into gear and want to help bring her home. We got in the car, filled up the tank and headed to Reading which was a good hour drive from where we were, give or take a few miles. We didn't really have a plan installed but since I was the driver it gave Andy enough time to think it out. About half way there it was like a light just turned on in his brain, I swear, he sparked up immediately and stated the plan. It wasn't a plan I was comfortable with but given the circumstances I don't think we had an option. From reading her Myspace page and various other links and the chat on the phone they had he noted that she liked to "party" as in hang out with people she had no clue about and smoke weed. So that would be the basis of their meeting. He knew I was uncomfortable with it and stated he would call a friend that would help out and leave me out in the foreground waiting for God knows what. He dialed his friend and had to call a few times as by this point it was well going on 1am but eventually the friend answered and said he was willing to help out and to pick him up on the way.

Still feeling uncomfortable about it all I asked Andy why don't we just contact the police tell them what is going on and have them pick her up and send her home. In all honesty, yes we did the work and we made huge progress but at the same time we're not Jack Malone!!! We can't stage things and be protected by the law and God knows I don't need anymore trouble with the law!! But he stood his ground and said if the plan fails we'll go to the local police. There was no talking down so I went with and prayed for the best outcome. As we got to Reading we picked up Andy's friend who I had never met before was seemed like a guy who genuinely cared. He's 21 but looks younger than 17 at a first glance. And Andy knew this feature would work in our favor. About 20 minutes after picking him up we pulled into the Sheetz parking lot and formulated how this would all go down, with me in the background echoing "We should call the police". My echos got ignored, of course. After a plan was formulated Andy phoned her again, something we hadn't thought to do until just now for all we knew she wouldn't come out, or was just messing with us in a similar fashion as we were with her. But as luck would have it she did answer and was down to hang out with Andy and his friend. She thought they were going to meet up to "party", little did she know. She picked the meeting place which was at a grocery store about 1/2 a mile from where we were, she said she would walk there and Andy and his friend said they would meet her there also. I stayed in the car and Andy said he would text me when it was my cue to come out there. Not longer after we agreed on the pla, basically get her to talk to the both of them stall time and try to talk her into going home. The latter would be my responsibility. While waiting what seemed like forever but was only about an hour I got a knock on my car window from a attendant at the Sheetz telling me "no loitering", I nodded my head and they went back inside. I wasn't sure where to go to since the Sheetz and that grocery store were really the only 2 open places within driving distance to where they were at. So I braced myself and went into the gas station and tried to talk to the attendant that was motioning for me to leave.


I gave her the short story that a friend's daughter ran away and we were trying to get her to go home. At first she looked at me like I had 2 heads but after I told her she could contact the girl's mother or even the PD to verify that she did infact runaway she looked at me like I only had 1, and said I could wait in the parking lot but to park on the otherside so to not take up any of the front row parking spaces. That had went easier than I thought it would. After explaining it she was quite nice and wished us all luck in it.

Another 2 hours had passed and I hadn't heard anything I was worried thinking it either failed, the police showed up and at times thinking my cell phone was being stupid again. So much so that I made a call to verizon myself and you know you call up get the operator and you ask "I am wondering if my phone is working?" To which the operator responds "You're calling us from it!" I'm sure the operators love those kind of calls where the customer looks like a big moron. After hanging up I finally received the text message to come on out. I was hoping Andy would ease my nerves some and tells me in the text if it was good or bad. It stated neither just "come". With that I headed down, nerves completely in an upset not sure whether it would be good news or bad news.

When I arrived I was able to see that she was still there, this gave me some hope. Andy's friend Marcus walked up to my side in a hurry and told me that she knows why we are there. I got out of the car and walked over towards her. I was able to notice almost right away that her eyes were bloodshot and from the sniffles she had been crying, I was hopeful. I walked up and greeted her and told her my Name, how I "know" her and why we were there. Surprisingly she had no attitude at that point, Marcus said she wasn't so nice before my arrival though. I told her that her Mom and Dad and entire family was extremely upset about her being gone. He fired back with "If they care why didn't look for me?". I had to tell her unfortunately how the PD and DHS wasn't much help for her family but was eager to give us information to help find her. I began asking her questions some I am sure Andy or Marcus already had asked but I needed to know. My main question was "Why?" Her answer was one I was hoping wasn't the reason. Basically, this lowlife promised her everything from rainbows to sunshines and the "perfect" life. However, it seems after a day or so the lowlife got rather tired of her but kept her at his Sister home to bother with when he "felt like it". It was silence for a while, clearly this girl's heart was broken and her life turned upside down due to broken promises that never could have been kept in the first place. After a bit of silence the girl asked us "How mad are my parents?" I quickly responded with the truth, they weren't mad they were scared and upset and all they wanted was for their Daughter to return home. She didn't believe me at first but I was able to convince her after a bit. Which was true, not once while talking to her Mom nor her Dad did they ever once speak of being upset with her or even disappointed. They just wanted her home.

The answer to that question just sparked the social bubble in that girl she just began talking about everything, anything and at times nothing. We all sat there talking with each other for about 45 minutes before I was able to ask "Will you go home?" I didn't know what to expect at this time it could have went either way. Instead, she made the maturest move and said "Yes." That was all we needed to hear and we knew it was sincere she didn't once try to make an excuse like "I'll talk to Lowlife and think about it", "I have things I need to do first", instead it was a solid yes. Altho it did follow up with that she does have things at Lowlife's sister's house to pick up. At first this sounded like an "excuse" building on but our worries ended when she asked if we would go with. After that we got up and were prepared to go, we stopped in the store real quick and gathered some snacks, since I know Andy and I hadn't had anything to eat since that evening earlier and she stated she was also hungry. So we got her some food until we could either get her home or reach a fast food establishment. As we were leaving the store an Officer had come into the parking lot and was apparently called because the store management thought we were loitering there as well. Once again I had to explain the situation, this time he actually checked out the story which is fair. 3 older people with a 14 year old, deserved questioning and I am glad a cop actually cared. He made the call to her Mom to verify our story and I think her Mom busted the officer's eardrum with emotions complete happiness. The Officer let her talk to her daughter and the first thing out of her daughter's mouth was "I'm sorry". After she got done I was able to talk to her as well it was refreshing to hear her be that happy and knowing the tears she was crying weren't for being scared, along with her waking her Husband up to tell him. I'm pretty sure she woke the neighborhood up.


After verifying our story the Officer said he would follow us to the apartment and helped us gather her items. The sister didn't enjoy that at all, and the Officer didn't care. Once that was done and the cop was done with us we set off to get that girl home. Once at her house the entire family was awake, and even my friend and her family were there to greet the girl coming home. I think her going home and seeing open arms and sheer happiness that she was home instead of being yelled at a wake up call telling her, your family cares. Not the lowlifes.

Due to the 3 of us that case was "closed" with great results. That's not to say that after the joyful reunion things for that family were perfect and problem free but I think that incident opened not only the girl's eyes but her parent's as well. She never saw that lowlife again and not just because her parents told her not to but because she learned to respect herself. And to trust family more than anything. The lowlife and his sister were also slapped with charges. The Lowlife got "Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor", "harboring a runaway", and some serious sexual offenses. The Sister got the previous two also but not the last one. It has yet to go to court and while he deserves what he gets the family simply doesn't care. They only care their daughter is home.

After that case was done the Mother of the girl ended up "referring" us to people she knew or worked with going through similar issues, their child ran away and no one seemed to care. We ended up helping 3 other families after that case and one being on the otherside of the fence. A 16 year old male contacted us and I have no idea how they knew to and needed our help. He ranaway due to an abusive father and a Mother too scared to leave. We couldn't send him back home to a perfect and happy reunion but we were able to get DHS to listen to his claims and his fears. After that we placed with an Aunt. So maybe we did send him back to a happier place.

I guess I can attribute that one case of the runaway 14 year old to be the founding stone that started up this Org. Since then the 3 of us have been eager to come together and help these families and these teens who for a reason beyond their own senses feel the need to "run". We're not the police, nor are we DHS so we cannot act in the ways that they do but I do believe with our knowledge and the ability to search just near anything up and are bold enough to try something despite the risks, I do believe we can help.

So with that, we decided to make our "work" an org. I'm currently working on the main website to help us reach out further and to also provide support, someone to talk to, ways they themselves can help. The website will be up in about a week I'd say and if you would like to volunteer to help out perhaps offer advice to those who come on it looking for it then let me know because while the 3 of us have been amazing the more help we get; the more we can help. Annie had already mentioned she'd like to help which is a huge thing for us considering she is one amazing woman and very inspirational to those who come in contact with her. There is one other person I want to see if they would be interested they too are an amazing person but she would bring something else to the site. She has dealt with an unruly daughter and multiple runaways, so I am beyond confident if she accepts she would bring great assets to the org.

The reason in the delay of setting it up "officially" is due to the fact I wasn't sure if we could run as an Org without being registered. But as I stated before as long as there is no money coming we should be fine. The first case, The mother offered to pay us for our "work" and gas and such but we refused. I'm a born traveler so the gas would have been used up anyway at least this way it was used for a wonderful reason. Once it is up and running I'll put the link in here and hope some will pass it along.

And if you're wondering where the name came from... when we have done our traveling it has all been done with my faded maroon subaru legacy. Yeah!, that's right I stink when it comes to coming up with names!! I also believe this org has a chance of making it and standing good and strong to help others. I'm sure some may think that it's just a org where 3 people think they are swifter than the law enforcement or know more than they do but it's simply not true. They majority of the time don't have the manpower to control unruly teens which is understandable but this is why we would like to help. We have already gained respected from one PD and also we are known at the office of DHS and have encouraged us to continue and have helped us out. So..yeah we might have a chance.


Fact is, I'm not anyone special and I may never become the Social Worker or TSS worker I have always wanted to become. I may never work for the FBI and be able to say I'm better than "Jack Malone". I may never be anything but if I was to die today and know that I have helped someone then I think my life would be more than okay. I just want to leave footprints.

**And no, I still cannot explain something without it being a book.