Laura Willett

I help people. Its what I do. I was born in Topeka, KS a city known for the term "Bleeding Kansas", coined by "New York Tribune" writer Horace Greeley in 1854 in reference to the often-violent in-state struggles between abolitionists and pro-slavery forces which is considered to be a prelude to the American Civil War. (Spoiler alert: Kansas entered the Union as a free state in 1856, with Topeka as its capital.) Oddly, my heart belongs to the town where I grew up, Johnstown, PA a city which functioned as a stop on the Underground Railroad during the American Civil War. Now I make my home in Oklahoma. In between, my life has taken me many places: from California to Mississippi, from New Mexico to Tennessee and even to Germany. Its taken me from daughter to mother. From fat to thin. From married to divorced to married again to, heartbreakingly, widowed. It's also taken me from an honors high school student to college dropout and now to a merit student in pursuit of a masters degree. From drug addiction to standing quite firmly on my own two feet. Its from this perspective that I choose to spend my talents helping others at the Oklahoma County Crisis Intervention Center. Life isnt easy. We live in a world where people get cancer. We live in a world where people kill and torture animals. Where people are unbearably cruel to those whom they are supposed to love and protect. Where people abuse the planet without thought of the consequences. But just like the people of Johnstown banded together to help Patrick and Abraham in their Escape to Freedom, and the people of Kansas banded together to pass an anti-slavery constitution by a 2-to-1 margin in 1859, if we all recognize that were in this great big cosmic stew together and if we work together, then together we can achieve so much. Many people helped me throughout my life. Thank you! And now I help people.