Sometimes
Jesus says something that might baffle us. For example, “anyone who loves his
life will lose it; to gain your life, you have to be like a grain of wheat
which brings forth much fruit only by falling into the earth and dying.”
In
other words, if we should like to see Jesus, we need to look for the fallen
grains of wheat around us, the sick and impoverished, the abused and oppressed.
Last week, I gave a talk about balancing work and personal life and when I sat
down after the presentation, the man next to me said, “you area hard act to
follow.” My response was, “you will do great.”
This
is a father’s story about how he transformed the darkness moment of a parent’s
life into the life of Easter
On January 17, 2009, we received the worse phone
call that every parent is afraid of. I never imagined losing my child to carbon
monoxide poisoning. There is no worse feeling than losing your child and
feeling completely lost and not knowing what to do or even wonder if your own
life is worth living anymore. I made the worse decision a parent could make by
taking my daughter there that night and now that will forever haunt me.
Shortly after Amanda died I received a phone call
from Amanda’s school and that phone call changed everything for me that day. Amanda’s
principal had told me a story about one of the teachers whose daughter wanted
her friends to sleep over and she told her only if your father goes out and
buys a CO detector which he did that night. Three hours later the CD detector
went off and the fire department was dispatched to their home and had found
high levels of carbon monoxide in their house. So the next day she called me to
thank me for saving her family’s life I knew that is what Amanda wanted me to
do so I made a promise to Amanda that we would never let another child die from
this silent killer.
Since that day I realized that Amanda didn’t die
for nothing. Her death was going to save lives all around the world. First
thing I did that day was call my assemblyman Mark Schroder and said we need a
law to require all homes to have a CO detector and with lots of hard work we
had Amanda’s law passed in record time.
As we were working on the law we decided that we
would pass out some CO detectors to the community so I contacted Home Depot and
asked them if we could pass out some CO detectors at their store and they loved
the idea so we told them we will pay for how many we hand out Well much to our
surprise and to our bank account 800 people showed up and we made sure everyone
got one that day.
At that point we knew we had to start the Amanda
Hansen foundation to help raise money to purchase the CO detectors. Once we
started the foundation the first thing e did was start the Amanda Hansen
scholarship fund where we award $1,000 every year to a deserving girl on the
West Seneca swim team that Amanda was so proud to be a part of. After that, we
started getting phone calls to do different events and talk to different groups
about the dangers of carbon monoxide and pass out more CO detectors.
After the first year, our foundation was growing
so fast and we were amazed art how much impact we had already made in their
community. Soon we were getting phone calls and emails from all over the
country thanking us for saving their family’s lives. But at that point I didn’t
feel like I made an impact until I received a phone call from the British
government asking us to come to the UK and help bring Amanda’s law to them. So
Kim and I took our campaign over there. The whole trip was amazing and
fulfilling. We started in London and Wales and then Scotland. Not too long
after we came home we were gratified that Amanda’s law was enacted in London
and Scotland.
Since that trip our foundation has not stopped
moving forward. We now work with many agencies to help spread the word about
the dangers of this silent killer. So far we have passed out over 17,000 CO
detectors to the public. We have purchased and donated 4 CO pulse omter to local
fire departments at cost of $4,000 each. And this year alone we donated over 22
furnaces to those in need. We helped get Amanda’s law in California and now my
biggest task is to make Amanda’s law a federal law and keep her name alive.
With running the foundation comes very little
sleep especially when it involves your own child. I spend many sleepless nights
trying to figure out my next move. Many of times I sit back and feel I have
gotten nothing done and am I failing my daughter again. And yet everyone tells
me different. But in running a foundation I don’t think about what I did but
what I can do. And in maintaining a foundation I always have to think where can
I get that next dollar from to continue this path that Amanda has put me on.
With the help of my wife we raise money by ourselves we don’t get government
grants or subsidies we rely on the community to support us. And without the
support of this great city Amanda would be just another statistic.
So in closing please help us keep Amanda’s name
and foundation going strong. We are always looking for new ideas and help in
fundraising. And most important of all please make sure you have A CO detector
in your home I don’t want anybody to have the life of my wife and I have now.
I would like to thank you all for hearing my
story and I know Amanda thanks you for not forgetting her.
AmandaHansenFoundation.org
Contact Ken or Kim Hansen (716) 380-1468
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends whose
children have died from some tragic event. Give strength and healing to these
parents and help find a purpose that will end their suffering and bring new
life and hope.
