“Abolitionist” is a uncommon job description on any trendy resumé, but that is how 17-year-previous Mark Tenney may record his summer time job.
The incoming senior at Woodbridge High School in Irvine is main a 21st century Underground Railroad residence to Orange County this weekend.
Harriet Tubman can be proud.
Mark, who organized the 5-day, 450-mile Ride the Railroad charity bike ride down the Pacific coast from Monterey, will pedal into Laguna Beach on Saturday together with relations, buddies and dozens of different supporters of Operation Underground Railroad, a corporation devoted to rescuing victims of recent slavery all over the world.
The ride is predicted to increase greater than $125,000 in particular person and company donations for the nonprofit to fight human trafficking — baby sex slavery in specific.
“It is really cool to see all the work that we put in over an entire year come together,” Mark stated this week after the 80-mile first leg of the journey. “To be able to meet these riders, who are flying in from Seattle or Utah or wherever, it’s been a ton of fun, and there’s a lot of satisfaction in it.”
The teenager’s conscience was shaken two years in the past by tales shared throughout a household dinner by Tim Ballard, who based Operation Underground Railroad in 2013.
“The Tenney family, or anyone who supports us, you have to be willing to actually sacrifice a little bit of your own innocence to even look into this darkness,” stated Ballard, a former CIA and Department of Homeland Security operative.
After 15 years of presidency service, throughout which he was assigned to youngster welfare instances, Ballard felt he could possibly be simpler as an unbiased operator.
He has recruited rescue groups of former CIA brokers and ex-Navy SEALS who’re infiltrating human-trafficking rings across the globe. Ballard stated his models work alongside native authorities and law enforcement businesses in 18 nations, together with the United States.
“It truly is an American problem,” Ballard stated, including that Western vacationers and baby pornographers are the first shoppers of the hidden sex commerce. “We are driving the market on this whole dark, dark business.”
Mark stated “most people are extremely unaware as to how big the problem is, and I would put my family in that boat two years ago as well.”
“Ever since Tim brought it up to us, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s an issue that’s real and serious.’ People need to do something about it, and we’re grateful to Tim that he does.”
Ride the Railroad turned a household endeavor for the Tenneys final summer time, once they began to plan a biking journey. Mark got here up with the thought of creating it a fundraiser for Operation Underground Railroad, and three generations have been shortly onboard.
Mark’s father, John, and 75-year-previous grandfather are collaborating in the ride. Mark’s mom, Liz, and his two brothers are touring the route in help of the cyclists. Relatives from Temecula and as distant as Texas are also collaborating.
Recruitment for the ride began with neighbors, then prolonged to the household’s church social circle. The ride slowly picked up different supporters, together with native companies that provided sponsorship. Irvine’s Golden State Foods, Newport Beach-based Pimco and Irvine-based Taco Bell got here by means of with monetary backing. The Berger North Foundation, a charitable belief in Nevada, is the ride’s prime sponsor.
“We’re extremely thankful to these companies for opening up their time to hear about this charitable event and then acting on it and sponsoring us,” Mark stated.
“It was all just so inspiring; we knew we had to get involved,” stated Shellie Frey, a vice chairman at Golden State Foods. “We wanted to get involved in any way we could.”
Ballard, 40, is a local of La Cañada Flintridge who now lives in Salt Lake City. He’s a father of six, and his household is in the method of adopting two extra younger youngsters, a boy and a woman, from a rescue he carried out in Haiti.
Ballard stated Operation Underground Railroad, the topic of the documentary movie “The Abolitionists,” launched this yr, requires about $50,000 per mission.
“I can tell you 100% that this bike ride, and the awareness and the resources that will come from it, will directly convert into rescuing children,” Ballard stated. “Literally, this bike ride is saving children.”
The ultimate leg of the journey will begin in Malibu on Saturday morning and finish in Laguna Beach round 11 a.m. A public celebration will probably be held at El Morro Elementary School, 8681 N. Coast Hwy., from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with Mark and Ballard scheduled to converse.
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