Freedom Butterfly Wall

A friend and colleague of the Glass House, Shannon Bruce, came to us with the idea to use her business StoryBridge, Inc. to create a new Product with a Purpose. She celebrated her 50th birthday with us and simultaneously this has launched a collaborative movement and mission of leveraging business as a force for good to end sex trafficking.

Her message to us was:

“My daughter was 10 the first time I heard that children were being bought and sold for sex in my community. These weren’t foreign children born in a foreign country, they were boys and girls born and raised right here in my own town. That day changed me.

Being a business leader gave me a natural platform to raise awareness about Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST)—and I used it. I discovered Shared Hope International while preparing for a local panel on trafficking and I appreciated that Shared Hope International was working on the issue internationally, nationally, and locally, going so far as to support a restoration home for female survivors in my region.

In 2016, for my 50th birthday, I decided to go beyond speaking about DMST and actively do something to help make a difference in the lives of victims of this crime. My friend Lisa Stirrett is a local glass artist who uses her studio to host community events. She also has a heart for this issue. The idea formed for a Party with a Purpose, in which she would create glass butterflies that could be sold as part of a fundraiser for Shared Hope International and those they serve. We sold about 50 butterflies, many of which were donated back to create a larger art awareness project in progress. And we didn’t stop there! 

Lisa has added the glass butterflies to her Products with a Purpose line as a way to continue the momentum and to provide a fundraising mechanism to give back to Shared Hope International. Each butterfly purchased and donated back to the Lisa Stirrett Glass Studio will become part of the Freedom Butterfly Wall with 50% of the profits donated to Shared Hope International. This wall will be a beautiful visual representation of the voices and lives of girls and women in trafficking being set free.

Our Freedom Butterflies are part of an art movement called the Freedom Butterfly Wall because we have chosen a glass butterfly to represent the voices of women who have been part of the human trafficking industry to be set free. The butterfly is a perfect representation of these girls and women being freed because of the nature of its paradoxical journey. While the butterfly emerges as an exquisite creature full of vibrancy, it starts off in a preparation and transitory stage from its beginnings as a pupa encased in a chrysalis where it undergoes its metamorphosis. Throughout its developmental process, the butterfly goes through a messy evolution and ultimately painful struggle to finally be set free.

This is exactly our desire—that this art movement of butterflies flying freely on the Freedom Butterfly Wall will end the pain and suffering caused to young girls and women because of the sex trafficking industry. 

You can be a part of this legacy, through buying a small or large butterfly and giving voice to this cause.

While the government estimates that 15-17,000 foreign victims are trafficked into the country every year to be used in forced labor or sex, the number of American born children trafficked within the U.S. far outweighs them. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) estimates that approximately 100,000 American children are trafficked into the commercial sex industry every year, with up to 300,000 at risk.

Many agencies have reported that the COMMON age of recruitment into the commercial sex industry is 14-16 years old but we have seen victims as young as 9 years of age. Shared Hope International’s research across the nation revealed that victims come from every race, ethnicity and socioeconomic background. While some youth have more extreme vulnerabilities, the reality is that all youth are vulnerable due to their age. Traffickers prey on their vulnerabilities, eager to manipulate them into believing his/her lies and promises.

These stats are exactly why the Freedom Butterfly Wall has been created!