Dozens of colorful balloons flitted above the banks of the Arkansas River on Sunday afternoon, dancing in the wind to the sounds of bagpipes, as Amy Stivers remembered the short life and violent death of her daughter.
Rather than spending Sunday afternoon celebrating what would have been Danick Adams’ 23rd birthday, Stivers joined more than 30 people at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock for the opening ceremony of Crime Victims’ Rights Week - a time devoted to remembering loved ones lost to crime and to helping those who survived.
Stivers, who lives in Bryant with her husband, Josh, said that her daughter’s death remains a mystery - especially to her.
Authorities say that Adams, 18, was shot five times and killed during a carjacking after she left a Jacksonville fitness center early one morning in August 2008. Her murder remains unsolved.
“Through Parents of Murdered Children [Inc.], I’ve learned to cope with things much better,” she said. “And I think the organization is awesome. Without it, I don’t know where I would be.”
The organization’s Arkansas chapter, for which Stivers now works, co-hosted the event with the Crime Victims Assistance Association of Arkansas.
Stivers said that she hopes while working as a victims’ advocate, she can use her own hardships and pain to help others.
“I want people to be aware of Parents of Murdered Children,” Stivers said. “When another person is killed in Little Rock, I want to be right there to say ‘Hey, you can get through this.’”
But although every member’s trauma is different, chapter leader Elaine Colclasure said that they all have equally upsetting tales to tell.
“One story sounds bad, but they’re all that bad,” Colclasure said. “There is no one worse than the others.”
Colclasure said that the organization isn’t just for the parents of children who have been murdered, as the title may suggest. She began attending meetings 21 years ago after the July 1989 murder of her husband, Charles Colclasure.
“When my husband was murdered, I thought my world was going to end,” Colclasure said. “I had a 7-year-old daughter and two girls in college - and when you have children, you have to go on - and I started going to Parents of Murdered Children with my mother-in-law and I found healing.”
During the event on the center’s Sky Terrace, representatives from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the local police also supported and consoled organization members.
“Instead of a fistfight, like it was when I first started in police work, it’s now a gunfight,” North Little Rock Chief of Police Mike Davis said, adding that this year’s theme, New Challenges. New Solutions, is fitting in a society experiencing the growth of cyber-crime and other means of “senseless violence.”
Just before the symbolic release of balloons, the three dozen or so participants began to sing aloud the chapter’s signature song. Stivers stood beside her husband and sang along, hiding her teary eyes behind dark sunglasses.
“We are the survivors, left behind to carry on,” people sang together as they joined hands to form a circle. “We are the survivors, joined together we are strong. We will speak out for our loved ones who were not given a choice.”
Stivers removed her sunglasses and began to cry as she continued to sing: “We are the survivors, hear our voice.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 04/22/2013