Mental Health News Radio

Helen and Kristin discuss the impact MADD has had since its inception in 1980. The organization had a significant impact on Kristin and Helen. They share their reasons for advocacy and education. Helen Witty in her own words: Eighteen years ago, as our shattered family faced our first Christmas holiday without our 16-year-old daughter, Helen Marie, I could not have imagined introducing myself to you as MADD’s new National President.I came to MADD in the months after Helen Marie died a sudden, violent death by an alcohol- and marijuana-impaired teen driver. Just as suddenly, we faced the impossible tasks of funeral arrangements and criminal court proceedings, of organ donation and boxing up her things forever. We faced a grief so profound it hardly seemed survivable.Until that sunny afternoon in our hometown of Miami, my husband John and I had our dream family: a boy and a girl, named for each of us. John and John. Helen and Helen Marie. Our daughter came first. When John followed three years later, Helen Mari