Dedication: Peggy Surratt
My story started when I met my mentor and friend, Peggy Surratt. She encouraged me to be the best pediatric ICU nurse that I could possibly be at home and around the world. Together we cared for desperately ill children around the world, and then one day we developed a plan for preventative community care to decrease childhood death and help build smarter communities. We started Learning At Large. L@L is a nonprofit that uses education to advance the lives of children. Street Smarts is a project we started in Haiti during a medical mission. Street Smarts pays tuition for homeless and parent less children. School tuition solves many issues. Placing a child in school not only educates but clothes, feeds and keeps them safe from being sold as child laborers or into sex slavery. We register both girls and boys in the classroom. We have seen a decrease in diseases due to malnutrition in the community. Working with my mentor to create this nonprofit has given me pride in my abilities both as a nurse and a child advocate.
