{"id":10990,"date":"2018-02-01T19:31:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T19:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madd.org\/?p=10990"},"modified":"2022-06-24T13:32:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T13:32:35","slug":"fighting_for_survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madd.org\/fighting_for_survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting for survivors like Tabitha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_123745\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123745\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/blogcolleen.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-full wp-image-123745 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/blogcolleen.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-full wp-image-123745\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-123745\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">MADD National President Colleen Sheehey-Church<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nBy Colleen Sheehey-Church<br \/>\nNational President<br \/>\nMothers Against Drunk Driving\u00ae<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone dies in a drunk driving crash.<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/20171220_214026-768x1024-1-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-123773\" srcset=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/20171220_214026-768x1024-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/20171220_214026-768x1024-1.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><br \/>\nTabitha Clark of Missouri is someone who didn\u2019t die. However, she was severely injured and is now confined to a wheel chair, unable to walk or talk.<br \/>\nI was with Tabitha while at Missouri\u2019s State Capitol in Jefferson City for an event called \u201cLight it up for Life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The goal of the MADD staff and volunteers was to convince the legislators to continue funding Sobriety Checkpoints, a critical component in MADD\u2019s <em>Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For me though, seeing Tabitha and her mother, Yvonne, had the most impact.<\/p>\n<p>I had met them a month earlier at a fundraising event in Springfield. Now 20 years old, Tabitha is strong and unwavering in her fight to live life to the fullest.<\/p>\n<h2>The Crash<\/h2>\n<p>It was two years ago when everything changed for her. Going home after a night of bowling, Tabitha was a passenger in a car. A drunk driver ran a red light and ripped through the car in which Tabitha was riding.<\/p>\n<p>As with every drunk driving crash, this one was 100% preventable.<\/p>\n<p>When you look into Tabitha\u2019s eyes, you know exactly why we work so hard to eliminate drunk driving.<\/p>\n<p>You understand why Sobriety Checkpoints and Ignition Interlock Devices and stronger laws and the support of our law enforcement officers is so important.<\/p>\n<p>We need your support in all of those efforts so that one day there will be NO MORE VICTIMS\u00ae.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Colleen Sheehey-Church National President Mothers Against Drunk Driving\u00ae Not everyone dies in a drunk driving crash. Tabitha Clark of Missouri is someone who didn\u2019t die. However, she was severely&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/fighting_for_survivors\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Fighting for survivors like Tabitha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-president","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fighting for survivors like Tabitha - MADD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/fighting_for_survivors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fighting for survivors like Tabitha - MADD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Colleen Sheehey-Church National President Mothers Against Drunk Driving\u00ae Not everyone dies in a drunk driving crash. 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