Letter: Four Who Stepped Up

Initiative at Grant Schools getting national attention

To The Editor:

Margaret Mead is famously quoted as saying “ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Four people from Grant, Teresa Fetterly, Jamie Presler, Mary Suplinskas, and Kevin Akin are those people. They recognized that social media had become a huge problem for the young people in their school and that the students needed guidance on how to use it. All the different negative things from bullying, pornography, and all forms of human trafficking were exploding as everyone became connected to the internet without restraints.
These people started looking for answers in order to protect our children. With a lot of hard work they found other people concerned with the issue and established the Newaygo County Human Trafficking Task Force last Spring. The group meets monthly and involves representatives from area schools, law enforcement the courts, and human service agencies. 
In a short time they have  become true leaders at a national level by helping to gett these issues known and finding ways to address them. Their efforts are now starting to result in some real progress and we all need to recognize and applaud this effort.

Dale Twing

Mr. Twing serves on the NC RESA Board and is an member of the NC Human Trafficking Task Force.

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