Group that helps families put pieces back together is struggling
By Scott North
Herald Writer
EVERETT — When she heard that terrorists had murdered thousands of people Sept. 11 by smashing hijacked jetliners into buildings in New York City and Washington, D.C., Kimala Rendon’s thoughts immediately turned to the families and friends of those victims.
"Oh my God," she remembers thinking. "They’ve just suffered this horrible event, and their lives will be different from now on."
That’s something Rendon, the newly appointed executive director of Everett-based Families and Friends of Missing Persons and Violent Crime Victims, knows from personal experience.
In 1979, her 10-year-old brother was brutally murdered by a drunken stranger who happened upon the boy while her family was visiting a campground near Sultan. Rendon was just 14 and spent years working through the grief and loss.
The terrorist attacks on the East Coast have had a backlash among the loved ones of homicide victims here, Rendon said last week.
Not only has the spectacle of sudden, violent death reopened old wounds, donations that help pay for local victim-support programs have all but dried up.
"The murders happening in our own community aren’t being noticed," Rendon said.
In a matter of minutes on Sept. 11, terrorists killed more than 4,600 people. That was nearly one-third as many homicides as occurred in the United States in all of 2000, according to FBI statistics.
The death toll from the terrorist attacks is hard to fathom, but so is the suffering of those who have lost people to equally tragic, but more common, acts of violence, Rendon said.
In the past 12 months, Family and Friends has worked with 446 people in Washington, helping them with support groups or assisting them as they navigate the often bewildering criminal justice system.
The nonprofit group has been doing similar work since 1975, when people, who knew young women who had mysteriously disappeared, met in a Seattle church to support each other. Although it wasn’t known at the time, some of the missing were victims of serial killer Ted Bundy.
The organization’s workload continues to reflect local crimes. Right now, some of those assisted by the group include the parents of a slain mail-order bride, the brothers and sisters of an Everett-area woman whose suspected killer is now on trial in Everett, and a stewardess from King County who lost her daughter to homicide this summer, Rendon said.
The terrorist attacks have also put a sharp edge on the suffering of people who may have lost somebody to violence years ago. People who haven’t been in support groups for years are showing up again, seeking help for familiar pain, Rendon said.
"They are emotionally thrown back," she said. "There is no doubt. We’ve seen it."
The increased need for services and the decline in funding is coming at a time when Families and Friends is dealing with grief of its own. In May, longtime executive director Bobbi Costa, 59, of Marysville, died after a brief illness. Rendon, who has been involved with the group as a volunteer for years, was this month named as Costa’s replacement.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431 or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.
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