STORAGE GIVES
She meant business. She was a change agent. “She” was Alliece Cole, former investigator for the Department of Family and Children’s Services, FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award winner, and founder of the Sparrow Foundation—the night’s recipient of the charity auction that would soon take place. For the next 30-plus minutes, she would delicately, but clearly and passionately, educate the guests on the often-undiscussed world of sex traf- ficking and its victims.
“When Lonnie and I talked about me speaking at the event, he originally asked for five or 10 minutes,” Cole said. “I went over to Lonnie and Jackie’s [Lonnie’s wife] house to plan for the event, and by the time I was done there, they are like looking at me and he goes, ‘OK, probably 20 minutes.’” When Cole arrived at the event that
Tuesday, Bickford encouraged her to take as much time as she needed to educate the audience on the Sparrow Foundation and its mission to end sex trafficking. “He said, just do whatever you gotta do,” Cole said of Bickford. And she did just that.
" StorageGives’ donation that
away, providing her with safety, resources, and a new outfit to wear when she starred in a PBS special about the foundation, and a 14-year-old girl who had been sent to a mental facility after being labeled a sex-worker. “When I first met her, she was talking about needing snacks, T-shirts, and shorts,” Cole said. The girl ran track, but her traffickers would periodically take that from her as a tool to control her. “I asked her to give me her snack list, and she put her head down and started crying. I was like, ‘What’s going on? Why are you crying?’”
night means that now, Storage-
Gives gets to be a part of these
moments." -Alliece Cole
That evening, with just a few handfuls of auction items, $40,000 was raised to benefit the Sparrow Foundation, a foundation that takes care of victims like Dani, an autistic girl who began being trafficked after her mother passed
18
Cole said the young girl turned to her and said, “Why are you so nice?” Through her tears, Cole replied, “This is not nice. This is appropriate.” After a short time of building trust with the victim, the victim enthusiastically shared the entire organization chart for the sex trafficking ring she had been captured by. Because funds at the Sparrow Foundation were low at the time, Cole reached into her own pocket to buy the snacks. She knew that somehow the money would show up to meet the needs of these victims. “StorageGives’
donation that night means that now, StorageGives gets to be a part of these moments. They get to do things to help my team continue doing what they do and to empower me to continue to go out and help sex trafficking vic- tims,” Cole said with tears in her eyes.
Spring 2024
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