Jay Stuckey introduced Sheri Lopez with Pearl at the Mailbox.  The mission of her organization is to 

Sheri shared her personal story of being groomed and trafficked at the age of fifteen.  Her hope is to prevent other children from walking the path that she did.

 

The grooming aspect is a process of preparing a child for sale.  Trafficking is when the child's body is actually on the market.  As a survivor, Sheri feels it is her responsibility to share her story to prevent as many stories like hers as possible from happening.  To make that happen, we all need to be aware of what is happening around us.  If we don't know what is normal with our neighbors, how will we ever know if something is amiss.  Pearl is the name of the woman who noticed Sheri making a regular trip to the mail box in an apartment complex, and paid more attention to observable details.  She one day asked Sheri if there was something she would like to escape from, and that is how she was rescued from human trafficking.

 

When Sheri was fifteen, she was from a traditional two-parent home.  They had lived a long time in their neighborhood.  She had no brothers.  She was a shy kid who had graduated from Junior High. She had an older sister, who excelled in school.  Her parents both worked and were tired when they came home in the evening.  Consequently, they didn't interact much with with the girls. The majority of Sheri's friends lived in a different high school district than Sheri did.  She would be starting school at a much larger school than she had ever attended and know almost no-one.  When teacher's met her, they would ask, Oh, are you the sister of (and name her older sister).  Immediately, she felt pressure to live up to her sister's more outgoing reputation.

 

A boy, who had been trained by his father, to look for vulnerable girls started inviting her to parties.  Lying to her parents was part of the grooming process.  He suggested her parents would be less concerned if she told them she was "going to a friend's house."  The grooming process took about three months.  The boy told his father everything.  The father used that information to connect.  The men she was meeting were her "brothers".  They gained her trust.  She felt cool, fun, and rebellious.  Then everything changed.  One weekend, when she'd told her parents she would be staying at a friend's the whole weekend, the boy's dad told him to "get the basement ready."  The initial assaults happened in the dad's basement.  This new life of her body being sold would continue for seven years.

 

Trafficking of children is a billion dollar business.  To manipulate her, she was told the encounters were recorded.  They threatened to show them to her mother and dad and their employers telling the story as though it were all her fault.  She went to school Monday through Friday and was trafficked on the weekends and during the summer.  If she started to push back, eggs would be thrown at her parent's cars.   On time, their tires were slashed.  They threatened to let the family dog loose.  

 

The year Sheri turned 18, her birthday was in March, and graduation was in May.  After her mother had been in an accident, she because unstable because of substance usage for pain control.  Sheri had barely been able to earn C's in high school.  She couldn't go on to college, and she needed to move out of her parent's home.  After reaching out to a friend unsuccessfully, she ended up at the boy's father's home.  

 

Sheri pointed out that every trafficked child has a shelf life.  When they are no longer requested, they have no monetary value.  They are kicked out.  At that point, many have addictions.  Some get killed or sold to another trafficker (a polite word for pimp.)  One of those individuals in Sheri's story was a woman.  One of her jobs was to stay in touch with her parents and make them believe she was okay.  She wrote letters, but she was not okay.  She didn't want to live surrounded by sick people.

 

Sheri was sent all over the US.  She was trafficked to CEO's and other people of wealth.  It was her job to pretend to be their love interest.

 

Her last location was in Arizona.  One of her jobs was collecting mail.  That is how Pearl came to notice her and rescue her.  After her rescue, Sheri's memory is foggy.  Therapy then was not as good as it is today.  She was able to go to college to be a nurse, but found that was not for her.  She later became a flight attendant, and said it felt good to be the master of her own hotel room - to come and go under her own power.

 

Sheri works with survivors.  Her most important message to them is that what happened to them doesn't define who they are.  She encouraged members to sign up for her newsletter.  If you missed that opportunity, you can send an email to Sheri and ask to be added as a newsletter subscriber.  Sheri also suggested that we add the National Human Trafficking Hotline to our contacts.  Their number is 888-373-7888.  She said Christmas is a very painful time for survivors.  She tries to reach as many as possible with small acts of kindness.