Why I am an Athlete for Childhelp...By: Daniel Dodson (AFC)

In spring of 2012 I signed up my family, which happened to include a 15 month old that would be competing in his third 1 mile race, for the Childhelp Run the Course 5K and 1 mile run. At the time, I was using the Childhelp run to train for a military style obstacle course that I competed during May of 2012. I was unfamiliar with the Childhelp organization and their cause, but upon arriving to the race, my life was forever changed. One display was a flagged off area which contained seventy pairs of children’s shoes. Having little knowledge about the statistics of child abuse, I soon learned that the shoes represented the number of children which had perished due to child abuse just this year. This year alone, it was only April!! Standing there looking at the tiny little shoes, I was beside myself. What in the name of humanity was transpiring here? How could this be? So many children being harmed by something that is 100% preventable! Until this point I had done fund raising for Wounded Warrior Project, Home Front and Home for the Heroes, but never even thought of child abuse. Being the father of three, it shocked me that I had totally overlooked this very real thing that lurked in the darkness. In August of 2012, my wife and I became Childhelp athletes. We embarked together on a new journey to raise as much money and bring as much awareness as possible to this cause, to speak for those who can’t, to advocate for children in need. While I will continue to raise money as well for the military causes, I have added to my life mission to help stop the death of the innocent children.

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