"The Mission"

"Dare To Dream" was founded in order to assist those who were in deep trouble both physically and mentally, after sustaining an on the job injury. It would prove to be a very demanding yet an enlightening experience. I had no idea when I started "Dare To Dream" that so many decent folks were being treated so badly, by those who would gladly do the dirty work of an out of control bureaucratic system. A system infested with insensitivity, mean spirited, and an un-American approach towards countrymen and women who’s only crime, was that of being seriously damaged by an on the job injury.

It became brutally apparent to me that any one who suffered an on the job injury was to be treated as if they were faking it, even after medical tests proved otherwise!  I was there and I was punished, as was my husband when he broke his back and lost the ability to work. When a family member becomes disabled the entire family becomes a victim because of the very nature of what that means, in real terms. But when you are at the mercy of the Workmen’s Comp System, it gives a whole new meaning to the word, VICTIM!

Phone calls would come at all hours!

I was totally available to anyone at any time, day or night. And it soon became apparent that I was to get little sleep as the calls started to come in with a vengeance. I made myself available from 1991 until 1996 and I was able to talk some good folks out of killing themselves. Most of these types of calls would come at the wee hours of the morning. Family members, friends’, etc. would call and ask me to intervene with a loved one. Sometimes that meant going to their home at crazy hours and spending many hours and sometimes days assisting these good people to work through their anger and frustration with this bogus system.  Sometimes a call would come and an injured person would ask if they could come over and talk.

It became clear that I would need to recruit members who would do what I was doing and thus the "Dare To Dream" concept took on a life of it's own.  I would teach and inform and guide those injured folks whom I believed had the strength to assist others through their crisis.  And believe me when I tell you, it was one crisis after another because the abuse coming out of the system was relentless and pernicious in nature.

It took my husband almost eight years to escape a system designed to trap you, not with money, but with outrageous punishment if you angered one of the bureaucratic insiders and or did something they did not want you to do. Your temporary disability checks, which was far less then what you were making before the accident, would be held back, sometimes for months on end.  You would be forced to request a hearing before the benefits would continue. 

The more my husband and I assisted folks in acquiring  knowledge of their rights the more we were punished!  I estimate that our benefits were interrupted at least a dozen times.  We were to become unpaid lobbyist and that was a bittersweet experience, talk about an oxymoron.

As we build the "Dare To Dream Network" Website we will share many stories and experiences as we also aide and assist all the folks we can as they journey through, what I began to call, "The Twilight Zone"!

A Vietnam Vet, POW, damaged
by Workman's Comp System

I was able to talk some folks out of killing those who they blamed for their additional misery. One was a Vietnam vet who had been a prisoner of war and was bent on getting justice for the ill treatment he had been exposed to. I never met this gentleman; the call came at 3 AM one morning and a soft quiet voice said, "So you think you can help me"! I did not recognize the voice and in my tired stupor I said, I could only try! He was about to hang up when I said," Please don’t, share your pain with me, because I care about you". He became infuriated and said, ‘You know nothing about me! I said you’re right, but I want to know what has hurt you so, and maybe I can help, if we do nothing more that talk a while.

He was so very angry and in a lot of physical pain. You come to know the breadth and depth of physical pain when you have done this for a while. He did not want to give me his name and I said that was fine. As we began to talk he opened up about his Nam experience and how he came home to a strange, indifferent country and then he had the misfortune to be injured on the job and now was being called a liar and treated like a deadbeat.

He was going to sit and wait outside of the workplace of the person who he felt was unworthy and hurt this person. I was able to glean who this person was as there were some in the system who were notorious for bringing the worse out of the injured who were very proud. This systems hit man stood out like a sore thumb. I told my Vietnam friend that I knew whom he was speaking of and he was baffled and said, How? I told him I had been doing this for a few years and you come to know the enemy and I had learned well and had found many ways to put the enemy in his place. Killing was not an option as then the enemy would win and he is mourned, and played up by the system, as the injured worker would be played down as a disgruntled injured worker who was nothing but trouble from the start.

We talked for many hours and my Nam friend eased up on his anger and agreed to back off and said, he had decided to leave Nevada and visit with family that had been wanting him to come home so they could help. He did leave to be with his family. He did not hurt this person he had threatened to harm. Several months went by and one day a call came and a thank you was at the other end from my Vietnam friend. He was well and on the mend and thanked "Dare To Dream" for being there that night, as he said, things could have turned out much different had there not been "Dare To Dream".

Many Stories to Share

There are many stories to share both old and the new, and there is much work to be done to change abusive laws that serve only the well healed. Small businesses have an arguable gripe in the scheme of things, but punishing the worker is not the answer. Corporate America is the greedy culprit! It is they and their lobbyist who are behind much of what has adversely affected the working class and small businesses.

The "Dare To Dream" concept was and is to encourage and help folks find their footing once again,  remembering to hold onto the dreams they had before the accident/injury, and or to build new dreams and goals to reach for.

We do not try, not is it reasonable and fair to diminish what the injured are going through.  It is real and the abuse by the system can have far more long range damage when the system plays games with their/your head.  Anger is healthy as long as it is constructively directed.  My mother used to say,  "Success Is The Best Revenge"!  And that is what "Dare To Dream" will strive for; Sweet Revenge, by creating Success stories through assisting with information and sharing the laws that apply to each person according to the State they reside in.  Also, by creating a network of voters/activist who will have a voice in their State and in Washington!

We are still growing with our "Internet Family of Information" but we hope all those who can,  will share whatever they can, to assist "Dare To Dream" in the quest to keep "The Dream" alive for all of God's children.  Should you have links that open up doors of opportunity please let us know. If you have ideas to share bring them on.  Whatever you can offer to the ""Dare To Dream Network" will be appreciated and it will be used to the utmost in order to bring,

Hope and Relief to the "Disenfranchised"

- Because -

 " When Dreams Die, So Goes Greatness "