Human Trafficking: Laura Toy Making an impact one life at a time

This typewriter will be attending the Laura Toy-sponsored informative discussion on human trafficking. Toy is incredibly passionate about ending human trafficking and the intent for this event is well-meaning.

The special guest speaker, Dlynn, who has an incredible story, spent time with me last year and shared her story, which I am reprinting below.

I may not stay for The Sound of Freedom as I am strong in my convictions that this film is filled with Q-Anon conspiracy featuring misleading depictions of child exploitation.

Dlynn will be at the top of the program and her story is worth every word. Livonia has an advocate and you and I should be there to stand up for the fight to end human trafficking.

I will attend and encourage you to be a part of this movement and to support the fight of Laura Toy to raise levels of consciousness regarding human trafficking to show support for Dlynn and her tremendous recovery and to drop off needed supplies of products for men, women, and children living on the street.

Thank you Laura Toy for continuing your work to make an impact and raise levels of consciousness on this issue.

The following Musings story is reprinted from March 2023:

Some self-described leaders talk a good game and there are recognized leaders who reach out and turn their skillset from talk to action.

Laura Toy has proven that in the 50 years since we met.

When I first met Laura Toy she was an environmental activist not just talking about the climate. Instead, she was taking action by heading up the Livonia Environmental Center as an intern while a student at UM-Dearborn.

Toy went on to be elected as a Trustee at Schoolcraft College and then there was no stopping her. City Treasurer, Council, State Representative, and State Senator. Moving on up, this phrase took on a meaning beyond the catchy lyrics on a television show.

While in Lansing she found a passion that has been with her for nearly a decade. A bookend to what will be written about her when the community defines her legacy.

Human Trafficking. This is a story about Toy but more importantly, it is the story about a 36-year-old mother, shown here with Laura Toy, with three children whose story starts in Washington state and who, at an early age, barely a teenager, found herself in Michigan, at such disparate locations as a pimp-rented home in Grosse Pointe, and a local motel in Livonia.

She was being trafficked, pimped out, sold to men, and making money for the men selling her. She was beaten and stabbed 9 times, suffered broken bones, and was unable to purchase any personal needs products because the pimp wanted all the money.

d'lynn was introduced to the world of trafficking when she was 14. When brought to Michigan, she was dropped off at 8 Mile and Grosebeck. The next 14 years found her "working" for a variety of pimps, eventually winding up in prison for 18 months.

In prison, her life changed. She found a program that helped turn her life around. She became a speaker for a justice program founded by a woman in Texas that helped women in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan.

Today d'lynn has a bachelor's degree and is enrolled in an MBA program while working in retail as a supervisor. She has a 2-year-old son and one-year-old twin girls.

She met Toy at a fundraising event in 2016 at which she was a speaker. A friendship developed and she now brings her children to Toy's home one or two nights a week. Sometimes Toy drives to Shelby Township to pick up the children to stay with her in Livonia.

This is a positive rehabilitation story, proof that with the will, help, drive, and ambition it is possible to turn a life around.

Last year I spent time with Toy and d'lynn, who requested that only her first name be used. I listened as Toy shared a dream of hers to take her involvement in trafficking to include a Livonia Justice Center that would provide counseling for girls being trafficked. It would also organize sessions for business owners and hotel owners to help move women from bondage toward new lives. This would help business owners understand how to combat trafficking and look for signs of trafficking.

Toy suggests using the former Chamber of Commerce offices at Five and Farmington which is owned by the City, to open the Center. Another option that has my attention is repurposing the Noble Library for community space that might include a Justice Center along with space for any number of non-profit Livonia-based organizations.

Toy used her time in Lansing to take on the issue of human trafficking, helping to pass more than a dozen pieces of legislation on the issue. As she transitioned back to leadership in Livonia she continues the drive to improve the lives of one person at a time, making a difference every day.

d'lynn is proof that every day brings the possibility of moving forward, leaving past experiences in the past, reaching out extending the hand of love and friendship to others.

From environmental activists to advocating for human trafficking reform. From talk to action. That is the sign of leadership that has stayed with Toy from her environmental activist days to her passion for raising levels of consciousness on human trafficking.