Eau Claire, Wisconsin April 25-26, 2025

Last month, my husband Pat and I attended a Summit on Child Exploitation in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This Summit was put on by America's Future, an organization directed by Mary Flynn O'Neill (General Michael Flynn's sister). Mary is an incredible woman and she organized an amazingly educational event. You can find out more about America's Future here: www.americasfuture.net

This summit confirmed my future direction - not specifically, but generally. The specifics will take a little more time, training and research. 

There are a lot of aspects to fighting crimes against children, and a lot of different pieces to this puzzle. I don't know where I will fight, but I do know that I will get in the fight.

We heard from several speakers during those two days, and I'll try to give brief highlights of each of them. They are all incredible people that care deeply about the future of our country and our children. The majority of the speakers serve on the board of directors for America's Future, and the remaining speakers were excellent subject experts. 

General Michael Flynn and Lara Logan led the panel discussion on Friday night and it was an eye opener. Did you know that the United States is the number ONE nation for child sex trafficking? Wisconsin has the FIFTH highest demand in the United States? Minnesota has the THIRD highest demand? These numbers hit close to home. TOO CLOSE!

Lara Logan has been an investigative journalist for decades and is known for her "No Agenda" reporting of world events. She has a new podcast "Going Rogue with Lara Logan" check it out if you enjoy podcasts!

Lynz Piper-Loomis is an overcomer of crimes against children. She was sexually abused by a family member and wrote the book "I am Silent no More" - I just finished reading her book, and it's great. It doesn't go into a lot of detail about the really bad things that were done to her, but it gives a lot of hope for her future. She's an awesome person and author. 

Michelle Peterson is a mother of a teen that was a victim of "sextortion" by a teacher and coach at his school. She was great at explaining how pervasive this crime against children is. How it happens, how it is so hard to uncover and do something about. She is a warrior for her family and for yours! She was able to work with lawmakers in Illinois to have "Andrew's Law" passed. This law enables law enforcement to take action against these crimes. Many times, our lawmakers will enact laws that are not actionable, so that criminals never face justice. This needs to change.

Tara Lee Rodas, HHS Whistleblower spoke, and I had the opportunity to meet with her and thank her personally for her bravery and courage. It cannot be easy for our government employees to call out our own government for crimes against children, but she sure did! She spoke truth into that room that day. The committee's response to her testimony was less than desirable. Here is a link to her testifying about the children at the border to the members of the House Judiciary Committee: https://youtu.be/Y06vLTRZNKM?si=kaQpxz1PAlLBkW_R

480,000 (reported) children crossed the border unaccompanied between 2021 and 2025. At the time of Tara Lee Rodas' testimony, the government was reporting that ~80,000 of them were lost. That number has been revised to currently over 300,000. The government has reported that out of 100,000 of those children that they have looked for, they were able to find ~5,000. This is unacceptable. This is horrifying! 

If you're interested in a longer video (about 46 minutes) detailing what she and her colleagues experienced as HHS workers, you can find it here: https://www.americasfuture.net/where-did-the-children-go/

Jarrod Sadulski (Ph.D. Criminal Justice) spoke at length about having gone into prisons in other countries (Ecuador, I believe, but am not completely sure) and interviewing convicted child traffickers to understand the how and why better. He was a wealth of interesting information, and his research and interviews have resulted in many arrests. 

I think the most impactful speaker for me was the representative from Shepherd's Watch, an organization in Texas that "Illuminates Sex Trafficking by targeting networks through software toolkits & methodology developed specifically for identifying traffickers & victims." This is an organization that I would like to spend some time shadowing and learning from. This is a very interesting organization that works closely with law enforcement to "deliver actionable intelligence that outpaces many local state & federal agencies". 

In a quick search - LIVE, at the summit, using their toolkit - these numbers were given:

• There are 179 UAC's (Unaccompanied Children) currently in Eau Claire County.
• There are 352 Registered Sex Offenders living in Eau Claire County.
• 65 of those Sex Offenders live within 3 miles of the church we were in.
• There are 3 illicit massage businesses (Brothels) in Eau Claire.
• There were 68 real-time sex sales ads (assumably some were for children or minors) in Eau Claire.

This data is astonishing, and I have no idea what the numbers look like for my county or yours, but I would like to learn how to find out!

Children are the most powerful currency on the planet - how disgusting is that? This is my why.