[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/faulkner-benefit-dinner-headlining-drew-brees-focuses-on-overcomers\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/faulkner-benefit-dinner-headlining-drew-brees-focuses-on-overcomers\/","headline":"Faulkner Benefit Dinner Headlining Drew Brees Focuses on Overcomers","name":"Faulkner Benefit Dinner Headlining Drew Brees Focuses on Overcomers","description":"Overcomers of violent crimes against them and their families were special guests at this year’s Benefit Dinner. They were accompanied by the District Attorneys of Alabama and their staff. Overcoming tragedy and adversity and turning it into something uplifting is…","datePublished":"2023-10-12","dateModified":"2023-10-17","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/#Person","name":"Rebecca Burylo","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/author\/rburylo\/","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/37a0c97fbd1eda89e38697defcaf0573?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Faulkner University","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/Official-Horizontal-480x128.png","width":480,"height":128}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/overcomers-BD.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/overcomers-BD.jpg","height":1536,"width":2048},"url":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/faulkner-benefit-dinner-headlining-drew-brees-focuses-on-overcomers\/","about":["Community","Highlights","News"],"wordCount":1109,"articleBody":"Overcomers of violent crimes against them and their families were special guests at this year’s Benefit Dinner. They were accompanied by the District Attorneys of Alabama and their staff.Overcoming tragedy and adversity and turning it into something uplifting is what brings hope into a dark world. Such was the theme at this year\u2019s Faulkner University Benefit Dinner as the event gave special recognition to more than 160 victims of violent crimes and the district attorneys of Alabama and their staff. Together they have fought for victims\u2019 rights and justice.The sold-out event headlined Drew Brees as the keynote speaker. Before the Super Bowl winning quarterback of the New Orleans Saints took the stage, more than 2,000 guests turned toward the center aisle to watch victims and their families walk down to the front of the Renaissance Convention Center in downtown Montgomery on October 5, 2023.\u201cTonight, we are here to honor overcomers,\u201d said Faulkner University President Mitch Henry. \u201cThose who courageously faced tragedy to inspire hope and achieve change to benefit us all. Honoring overcomers tonight highlights Faulkner University\u2019s commitment to public service vocational ministry- to celebrate those who make their chosen careers a ministry to serve and encourage others.\u201dAmong those walking down the center aisle to the stage were Miriam Shehane, Angela Haley- Harris, more than 40 victims and their families from the April 15 shooting in Dadeville, Alabama and Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey.Shehane\u2019s daughter Quenette was kidnapped from a convenience store more than 45 years ago and brutally raped and murdered before she was found in the cold on the side of a road the next day. During the seven long trials for her daughter that followed to convict three men responsible for the attack, Shehane knew she must do something to help future victims and their families in their pursuit of justice. Thus, Victims of Crime and Leniency or VOCAL was born. The nonprofit has been helping victims and their rights for more than four decades.The kidnapping of Harris\u2019 19-year-old daughter Aniah Blanchard from a gas station in Auburn, Alabama spurred the prayers of not only those across the state but across the nation in 2019 as citizens followed news of the search. Aniah was found a month later. She had been murdered and abandoned in a wooded area in Macon County.\u201cWhen this happened to my daughter, I actually heard Aniah\u2019s voice say to me, \u2018Mom, please don\u2019t let this happen to anybody else,\u2019\u201d Harris said. \u201cAnd I just said back to her, \u2018Baby, I won\u2019t.\u2019 And that was even before Aniah\u2019s remains were found and I knew that meant I had to do something. I didn\u2019t know what that looked like a the time, but now I know. I have to save as many lives as I can in my daughter\u2019s name.\u201dFrom Aniah\u2019s tragic murder came Aniah\u2019s Law, which Alabama voters passed on November 8, 2022. Aniah\u2019s Law or Amendment 1 changed Section 16 of the Alabama constitution, which concerns the right to bail.Because the man charged in Aniah\u2019s kidnapping and murder, Ibraheem Yazeed, had been released from jail on a $280,000 bond after being charged with kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder from a January 2019 incident in Montgomery, Aniah\u2019s Law adds a list of serious crimes other than capital offenses for which a defendant could be held without bail before trial. Among those include murder, first degree kidnapping, rape, domestic violence, human trafficking, burglary, arson and terrorism.\u201cAs District Attorney of Montgomery County, I have seen the most evil things you could ever see,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cWe as district attorneys live with the trauma with the things we have seen that can never be unseen and try these cases in the court of law. But we also get to see the other side and that\u2019s the strength and resilience of these families who have been left behind.\u201dShehane and Harris and their families led the way down the center aisle holding lit candles aloft to remember their loved ones. More than 160 others who suffered similar loss, joined by their district attorneys followed them onto the stage. It was a poignant display of overcoming before Drew Brees was invited on stage, a man who has endured his own share of adversity and challenges and helped those in his community of New Orleans for 10 years to rebuild their lives from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.\u201cWe are building overcomers at our university\u2026 men and women with core faith to persevere and thrive like Drew Brees and to draw inspiration from other overcomers in our own community. Overcomers like those we have invited here tonight to honor,\u201d Henry said. \u201cOvercomers who have been faced with a cause greater than themselves who rose up in the face of tragedy, rolled up their sleeves and did the hard work before them, even when it seemed insurmountable, who refused to be overwhelmed who were not swept away and who endured burning pain because their faith in the One who gives them their strength compelled them.\u201dAfter the walk concluded former quarterback for the New Orleans Saints football team, Drew Brees came on stage for a Q&A style conversation, moderated by Kim Hendrix former anchor for WSFA 12 News.A graduate of Purdue University, Brees found himself on the national stage playing football for the San Diego Chargers before a near career-ending shoulder injury sidelined him and forced him to look elsewhere for work. He came to New Orleans to play football, but what he found there was a mission. He saw how the people there and the area had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina and he and his wife knew that accepting the position with the Saints was more than a job, it was an opportunity to serve. It was a way to return hope to the community. His foundation, Brees Dream Foundation addressed the areas greatest needs at the time, which included housing, healthcare, education, business opportunity, economic development and more. What he and his wife did to help the people there still impacts lives today.\u201cThe greatest breakthroughs I\u2019ve had in my life, the greatest accomplishments I\u2019ve had in my life, the most defining moments I\u2019ve had have all come on the heels of adversity,\u201d Brees said. \u201cI would not have ended up in New Orleans had it not been for a devastating shoulder injury when I thought my career was over. I wouldn\u2019t have chosen it that way. It was God\u2019s way. It had to happen that way. I\u2019ve grown to embrace adversity and view it as an opportunity.\u201d"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Faulkner Benefit Dinner Headlining Drew Brees Focuses on Overcomers","item":"https:\/\/www.faulkner.edu\/news\/faulkner-benefit-dinner-headlining-drew-brees-focuses-on-overcomers\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]