Exploring the American Wilderness and Other Adventures

Hiking for Freedom with Atlas Free

Freedom defined: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. 

Hiking defined: the activity of going for long walks, especially in the country or woods.

Human trafficking defined: the unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Freedom Hikers: A rad group of people who go for long walks to promote awareness and raise funds to secure freedom for victims of human trafficking. “Doing what we love to fight what we hate.”

I’m one of them. We are people of hope. We speak for the oppressed. I am learning to live a loud life that fights for freedom. 

It is difficult, if not impossible, for most of us to imagine what it would be like to have our freedom taken from us and then be exploited for the benefit of predators and criminals. 

Facts about human trafficking:

1. 20-40 million people are victims of forced labor, marriage, prostitution, and organ removal
2. Less than .1% of human trafficking survivors are identified
3. 71% of trafficked individuals are women and girls
4. Over 50% of trafficked individuals are children
5. Many victims of child sex trafficking were in the foster care system and/or were/are runaway girls who were victims of molestation

Atlas Free (formerly Rescue:Freedom) is an incredible non-profit focused entirely on bringing together free individuals to fight for the freedom of the enslaved and trafficked. 

I became a Freedom Hiker the same year I got sick. I was hiking alone more often because my children were more independent, so I was searching to put more meaning in my steps. I discovered Rescue:Freedom and knew I had to help. 

As a child and young adult, I faced treatment from powerful adults that nobody, especially a child, should experience. It has irreconcilably altered all potential I may have once had. I have always been motivated to be the barrier to other young girls and women being treated similarly. Still, it took rigorous effort and many years to develop the tools to be in a place where I could help without hindering. 

As a Freedom Hiker, I imagined climbing to beautiful places with beautiful people, motivating one another with our hopes and dreams for those we want to save. I didn’t imagine that I would end up being under intensive medical care and missing out on these incredible moments that my team was sharing. 

Because of that, this year I had selfishly thought I would not be a hiker for freedom. But it never left me. I have always said, “If not you and me, then who?” Does learning to live with incurable cancer elevate me from advocating for others? Does it mean I’m not good enough to advocate for others? No and no. What if my tenacity and my voice can bring another hiker to dedicate their long walks to the freedom of others? What if…there are countless what-ifs. And in the end, if I only succeed on one trail and raise $1, it is more than doing nothing. I have to do something. 

Please join me as I share my long walks with you. Please share my fundraising link with your boss, employees, family, and friends. My goal is simple – to raise $1,500 while I hike my way to finally completing the Idaho Grand Slam in September. Because of the pain and fatigue that cancer plagues me with, there are going to be many moments where I feel I cannot be of help to this cause. I will need your support then to remember that this is not just for me. Again, if not you and me, then who?

Doing what I love to fight what I hate:

Today, millions of people are living in sexual slavery around the world. 

Day after day, they are abused and live life as someone else’s property. But their story doesn’t have to end there. With your help, we can stop the cycle of exploitation for women and children. 

Please follow my fundraising link and help me help others – thank you!

We can write a story of freedom. If not you and me, then who?