Dani's Story: A Journey From Neglect to Love (29 page)

Empower Me Day Camp, summer 2010 water play.

 

We named her Joy.

Acknowledgments

Diane and Bernie Lierow and Kay West would like to thank the team who guided this book to fruition: Sarah Lazin and Manuela Jessel at Sarah Lazin Books; Stephen Power, Richard DeLorenzo, and Ellen Wright at Wiley; and Robert K. Oermann for playing matchmaker.

Our sincere gratitude to Dani’s first angels, most especially Garet White for going above and beyond; Plant City Police Detective Mark Holste; Kevin O’Keefe and Marisa Perez of Sanders Memorial Elementary; and Casey Foote and Leslie Goldenberg of The School District of Lee County. Thanks to the Heart Gallery and to Carolyn Eastman of Children’s Board of Hillsborough County; to Lane DeGregory and Melissa Lyttle of the
St. Petersburg Times
; and to everyone at
Oprah
, especially producer Staci Strazis, and Oprah Winfrey for her kindness.

Diane and Bernie Lierow wish to thank all the wonderful volunteers at Naples Equestrian Challenge, STARRS, and Empower Me Day Camp; our dear friends in Fort Myers Beach: Dorothy and Paul LaPiccola and Doris and Bill Kenny, and Mike and Evie Barnes, for allowing Diane to have such a flexible work schedule when we first got Danielle; our children Paul and Steven Willhite, and Shawn and Ryan Lierow; Rachell Willhite; and everyone who has touched Danielle’s life along her journey.

Kay West thanks the Lierows for their trust and friendship; my children Joy and Harry West, for their patience, understanding, support, and love; my family for their encouragement; and my army of friends for their humor, cheerleading, and reprieves of wine and whine. Much gratitude to Sarah Lazin, for talking me off the ledge more than once.

To follow Dani’s progress:
http://www.danisstory.org/

If you suspect a child is being abused, the National Hotline is:
http://www.thechildabusehotline.com/

For more information on fostering, adoption, and the Heart Gallery:
http://www.heartgalleryofamerica.org/