Fearless and Female
September 5, 2007
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Cindy Cushing and Julie Ladd dressed up on “Grandparents Day”
This will be quite the story for those of you patient enough to read it. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas and as usual, a group of us all went to the same elementary school, junior high school and then on to the same high school (Wichita Southeast High School).
The picture above is of two of my friends taken back in elementary school. The girl on the left is Cindy Cushing and the girl on the right is Julie Ladd. They were both very good friends of mine throughout my adolescent years. When college came around, we all went our different ways and it became very difficult to keep tabs on everyone.
Julie, the girl on the right, who happened to be one of the nicest and brightest girls in the entire school, was brutally murdered her freshman year at Wichita State University in her dorm room. She was 19 years old. They believe that she was in her dorm room preparing a Sunday School lesson for church, where she taught on weekends. She had gone to get something to eat out of the vending machines on the bottom floor of the dorm, when her attacker took her life and murdered her in cold blood.
Cindy, the girl on the left, now spends her time traveling the country training and teaching women how to protect themselves. She has a website called http://www.fearlessandfemale.com/ and a blog called http://www.fearlessandfemale.blogspot.com/ that is filled with information and pictures.
Words cannot express how saddened we all continue to be at the loss of Julie’s life all these years later, and words cannot express how thankful we are for the work and dedication of Cindy all these years to help prepare and equip women to protect themselves.
I want to encourage you to go to Cindy’s website and read the dedication page written on behalf of her dear friend, Julie.
I, personally, am blessed by Cindy’s desire to turn a tragedy into a triumph. She took a horrible event in the life of her dear friend, and she has used it as a catalyst to make a difference in our world.
We continue to pray for women who have suffered as a result of the violence in our world.
Thank you, Cindy, for helping all of us…
Dudley
