One of the highlights of my holiday season was a very special visitor to my part of the world.
Julie Sykes was on the vacation trip of a lifetime with her beloved son, James and they made a pit stop in Panama City, Florida to visit Gulf World and play with dolphins and have dinner with ME!
I first encountered Julie in 2017, after seeing Julie’s interview with Bill Schammert on 10/11 News, a CBS affiliate channel. Julie had gone to the press for help as a last resort in getting her
Julie has Morquio Syndrome, a rare genetic disease that has left her wheelchair bound and disabled. Without her child support Julie had no choice but to go on public assistance. Her son worked through his high school years to help keep a roof overhead and food on the table. He would not have been able to have his senior high school yearbook had his grandmother not paid for it.
In the interview Julie asked the reporter, “Why are taxpayers paying for my son when his father should be?”
Good question Julie…. Good question, and after seeing this interview I had to track her down and learn more.
Julie was willing to share her story with me in hopes of helping other parents who have been financially abandoned and abused. And a friendship I treasure was born!
I covered Julie’s story for MomsFightBack.org in 2017. You can read it here: https://momsfightback.org/chaos-in-colorado/
In November of 2017 I did a follow up piece:http://alanakhaase.com/society/justice-for-julie-a-follow-up/
Here is what I want you to know about my friend Julie.
She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She loves her son. She wants nothing but the best for him and it is a fact of life that things kids need cost money.
Julie has no fear, she is not afraid to fight for what is right.
She put aside the humiliation of having to go on public assistance and went public. She was unstoppable. She went to the local media, filed complaints with Health and Human Services, her governor’s office, did blog interviews and podcast interviews. She had her mother go with her to court in another state so the judge could see for himself that suffering humans were on the other side of another boring child support enforcement case.
SHE NEVER GAVE UP.
And so, I got to meet my little hero, her boy and her loyal loving service dog Onyx in Panama City, Florida before Christmas.
And why was Julie in the Sunshine State this past December? Because James has now graduated high school and because of her never-ending advocacy on his behalf, Julie has finally been receiving child support payments and payments on the arrears total of over $40K so she can afford to take James on a much-deserved vacation prior to college. So instead of working to put food on the table this young man was able to pet dolphins, stingrays and head on down to Disney for a dream Christmas!
What is the takeaway for you?
NEVER GIVE UP.
Use every single resource you can to fight for and collect your child support.
Arrears nationally are now over $118 BILLION DOLLARS. Does some of that belong to YOUR KIDS?
Then NEVER GIVE UP. BE LIKE JULIE!
Do you know the child support laws in your state? Do you know the “trigger criteria” set for driver’s license suspension in your state? Amount of arrears owed in your state? What constitutes a felony in your state? Have you been to your state congressmen and senators with this information? Have you contacted your local press with this information and are you willing to come forward with your story?
If not, why?
As I said above the arrears nationally are now well over $118 BILLION dollars with 73% of kids enrolled in IV-D enforcement on Medicaid due to unpaid support.
Don’t you think your fellow taxpayers need to know this? Can your neighbors afford to pay for your kids because your other parent will not, and the state will not enforce its own court orders?
Our kids deserve the very best we can give them, no matter what.
Let’s work together to ensure that 2020 is the year that all children in America get what they need and deserve.
