“I had never heard these words prior to November 2007,” said Brett Horn, father of Charlie Horn. “Had I heard them, they likely wouldn’t have made an impact on me at the time. But the past 12 years of repeating these words and other child safety tips is the only way I can still connect with my son, Charlie.”

The past 12 years of Brett’s life have been an answer to the question: what do you do when the unimaginable happens? For Brett and Jenny Horn, the answer has been to dedicate their lives to help protect as many children as possible.

Charlie’s story

Charlie was a happy two and half year old - a triplet and one of four young children in the home of Brett and Jenny Horn. Brett and Jenny were educated, hard-working parents who appeared to have it all figured out.

As with most young families, their suburban Kansas City home was a busy place, full of dirty diapers, daily messes and toys everywhere you turned. They child-proofed their home in all the usual ways: they installed outlet covers and baby gates, raised blind cords up out of reach, secured cabinet doors and drawers, and covered sharp corners of coffee tables.

But an unexpected danger remained.

“We got the call no parent ever wants to get,” said Brett.

After waking from a nap one day, Charlie was tragically killed when a short child’s dresser, only 30” high, tipped over on top of him. There was an audio monitor in his room, but there was little or no crashing sound for their nanny to hear. Any sound Charlie made was buffered - trapped between the dresser and the floor - while his brother was still asleep in the same room.

The pain of losing a child is immeasurable. For the Horns, it was magnified by guilt, believing they could have prevented their son’s death.

“Had I taken the time out of my busy schedule to educate myself further about all home dangers to children, would Charlie still be alive?” asks Brett.

A House of Hope

In the midst of tragedy, Brett and Jenny found strength in caring for their three other children and use their experience to help others.

“The first thing we wanted to do was hide away from the world, but we had three other children we needed to raise and be parents to,” said Jenny. “We knew immediately we wanted to help families in some way, which is why we shared our story.”

The support and response they received to their story prompted the founding of a nonprofit, Charlie’s House. This facility is dedicated to educating families on home safety, including the risks and the accompanying safety measures that can prevent injury.

“At the time of the accident our family and friends began looking up tip-over accidents on the internet, and we were shocked by the number of children hurt and killed by this type of accident.”

The work of Charlie’s House, which has been supported by Charlie’s Grandfather Mark Plush, a retired State Farm agent, and with philanthropic support from the insurance company, has grown quickly. In the first year alone, the organization shared 10,000 furniture safety straps with families. They also assisted in passing a resolution in the Missouri state legislature to urge the enacting of federal safety standards for tip-prone furniture.

Since then, Charlie’s House has worked with many local, regional, and national safety and medical organizations on safety awareness initiatives. Annually, the organization has distributed more than 100,000 safety items and resources via online orders and local events. The Physician’s Alliance program, started by Charlie’s House in 2012, provides safety information to pediatric physicians’ and specialists’ offices to share with families.

There are many potential hazards in and around a household, and Charlie’s House shares information on all of them. This includes a checklist of simple home safety measures. Many risks from tipping furniture can be addressed by tethering furniture to the wall with special straps or brackets (available at many home stores) which are attached to wall studs. Drilling just a few small holes in the wall can make a big difference in the safety of one’s home.

Building for the future

The next big project ahead for the Horns and Charlie’s House is an actual house – a Safety Demonstration House. This simulation facility, open to the public, is expected to host over 80 events in the first year and provide tours to more than 1,500 individuals. Scheduled to open in early 2020, this one-of-a-kind facility will allow thousands of parents, caregivers and children to tour and learn about the many household threats and alternative safety ideas to help reduce risk. For example, visitors will walk through a kitchen, family room, bathroom, nursery and other living areas where potential problems may occur. Interactive areas will allow children to participate with hands-on activities to make the learning experience impactful.

“Once complete, Charlie's House will be the first safety demonstration home in the nation. A place where parents and caregivers can come to learn how to properly childproof their home,” said Brett.​

The work of safety awareness is never-ending. But Brett, Jenny, and the team that has grown to support Charlie’s House sees signs of progress. In 2017, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement indicating a reduction in ER visits for furniture tip overs from one every 24 minutes to one every 30 minutes.

A busy life of meaning

With three active kids - Jack (16), Brigit and Will (14 - Charlie's triplet siblings) - the Horn household is still a very busy place. The work of Charlie’s House has opened Brett and Jenny’s lives to a larger world of safety advocacy.

“In many ways, we have moved beyond the tragic accident into so many other arenas, where we are accomplishing our goal of preventing accidents to children in and around the home,” said Brett. “Twelve years later, there isn't a week that goes by that we don't hear from another family or media outlet about how our story may have helped prevent other accidents. It very much still keeps us connected to Charlie.”

“To Brett & Jenny, it’s about Charlie, but to you, it’s about Sam, or Emmie, the children in your lives,” said Jenny. ”What Charlie’s House represents is safety in the home.” Brett adds, “While it will always be named after our son, Charlie’s House isn’t about Charlie Horn… it’s about your Charlie.”

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800 miles away in Rochester, NY, Stacey Fioravanti received the alert. She was working the night shift at ADT’s Customer Care Center. Stacey immediately called the Taylor home and then contacted the local fire department. Within minutes firefighters from the Florissant Valley Fire Protection District arrived. The Taylor family huddled under blankets in the cold and watched as firefighters extinguished the blaze.

Tabitha’s family was safe. Her home was damaged, but not destroyed. The outcome could have been very different if their home didn’t have working smoke alarms and an ADT-monitored system.

“Without of the quick response by ADT and the Florissant Fire Department, this situation could have been much worse,” said State Farm Agent Elveeta Mason.

Tabitha and her family joined ADT and State Farm® to thank first responders for their live-saving efforts. The Florissant Valley Fire Protection District received a $5,000 grant from ADT and a matching $5,000 grant from State Farm as part of the ADT Lifesaver Award. The grant funded community education materials to teach children about fire safety. It was also used to purchase and install smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors  in homes of at-risk and elderly residents in the Missouri community.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) reported 475,500 structure fires in the United States and 2,950 civilian deaths in 2016. That is one home fire reported every 90 seconds, and one death every 2 hours and 35 minutes.

As the leader in homeowners insurance, State Farm recognizes home control and monitoring products help provide protection. To learn more about an ADT special offer for State Farm customers, visit the ADT Home Security website or State Farm Home Protection & Automation. Homeowners and renters may qualify for the Home Alert Protection Discount. Contact your State Farm agent for details.

But unlike most youth, Jacob has a hidden hurdle to overcome on the path to achieving his dreams. He spent the last five years in the foster system, and is now leaving the system to start out on his own.

Memories of Family and Making New Connections

Before entering the foster system at age 16, Jacob remembers a family life that influenced his current path.

“My best memories are of cooking with my family. There was peace in the house when the family cooked,” Jacob reminisced. “I can remember being nine years old, helping my mom cook dessert for Thanksgiving, helping Dad with the turkey, and making a honey glaze with brown sugar for the ham.”

But Jacob’s life took a sudden turn when he went into foster care as a teenager due to abuse and neglect. “Before I entered foster care, all I was used to was my family. I didn’t understand how the state could take me and my brothers and sisters away from our home. It was a really traumatic time in my life.”

The trauma of being separated from your family can carry a high risk for foster youth. Compared to their non-foster peers, foster youth are at a much greater risk for a variety of financial and personal issues. For Jacob, a key step was connecting with Jackson County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), which serve the greater Kansas City, Mo., area.

“I met my CASA Volunteer, Katie, when I first came into care at age 16,” Jacob said. “Then, in 2015, I started working with CASA’s program to help older foster youth become financially independent.”

The Risks for Foster Youth

Many foster youth out on their own for the first time lack adequate education and role models for good financial practices. This puts them at a high risk for missteps that can cause long-term problems.

“Foster youth can become victims of many financial schemes including payday loans, rental scams, rent-to-own furniture stores, telephone scams, pyramid schemes, identity theft, and high-interest credit cards and loans,” says Kathryn Hartzler, Jackson County CASA’s Older Youth Specialist.

Even if a foster youth avoids such threats, they may lack basic information about the costs of utilities and other expenses beyond the cost of rent. Foster teens who fall into these traps are at risk for eviction, homelessness, and vehicle repossession. One poor decision can ruin their credit for years to come, devastating their financial future and self-esteem.

“Many youth ‘age out’ of the system feeling like they have to prove to the world that they can make it on their own,” says Kathryn. “If they fail to achieve the successes their peers experience, it can cause emotional turmoil. That can lead to relapses in previous harmful behaviors (such as substance abuse, unhealthy relationships, and self-harming behaviors) which can spiral into further issues.

CASA Fills the Gap

“Not a single teen leaves foster care wanting to fail,” says Kathryn. “But many youth fail when leaving custody because no one took the time to explain to them the basic financial skills parents usually teach their kids.”

To help fill this missing piece of the puzzle, Jackson County CASA introduced its Employment and Financial Literacy Program in 2015. The program, which is supported by State Farm, teaches teens about the financial realities of adulthood while coaching them as they navigate life decisions.

For every teen who enters this program, CASA conducts a life skills assessment every six months. Then the teen’s CASA volunteer, case supervisor, attorney, and Older Youth Specialist develop an action plan and goals to meet the needs of that specific teen.

“Many people have the same expectations of foster youth as they do for their peers who grew up in safe and permanent homes,” says Kathryn. “CASA volunteers and staff recognize success may look different for our older foster youth compared to their peers who did not experience the trauma of the foster care system.”

CASA volunteers are already familiar with each youth’s past, having worked with them for long periods. That knowledge, combined with an array of services and workshops, gives every teen in the CASA Older Foster Youth program the tools they need to succeed and overcome their specific obstacles.

Since the program began in 2015, Jackson County CASA’s Older Youth Specialist has provided direct financial and employment education to more than 75 youths in the Kansas City area.

The Ingredients for a Better Tomorrow

For Jacob, the understanding, sense of connection, and tools provided by Jackson County CASA has helped open doors to a better future.

“Kathryn and my CASA Volunteer, Katie, taught me how to budget and go grocery shopping for myself. They also connected me to food pantries and thrift stores to stretch my budget and taught me a lot of independent living skills. I feel a lot more positive energy now thanks to them.”

The basic ingredients of financial stability are helping Jacob connect to his future goals.

“Now that I have aged out at age 21, things are better,” says Jacob. “I can go places by choice, instead of the state making me. I can be myself and I am more in control of my situation. I’m working part-time right now, and am overjoyed that Kathryn is making it possible for me to go to Job Corps for training as a culinary professional.”

“My goal is to finish my culinary arts certification and get my GED and then my Associates degree in business. That’s a ‘big man step’ that will make it possible for me to work anywhere.”

With his own dreams now coming into focus, Jacob is also feeling inspired to give back. “CASA has been a great learning experience. I love Katie and Kathryn! I would someday like to mentor teenagers the way they have helped me.”

That’s when a massive EF5 tornado, nearly a mile wide at its peak, struck the city. Killing 161, injuring more than 1,100, and causing $2.8 billion in damages – making it the costliest tornado in U.S. history. Nearly 20% of the city was destroyed. 7,000 homes lost, more than 9,000 residents displaced, and 40% of the city receiving some kind of damage (including the local hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, which was damaged beyond repair).

There is much involved in a community recovering from such a devastating blow. Restoring homes, infrastructure, and basic services are tasks that continue to this day.

But the question of healing is a deeper issue. To help the residents of Joplin heal, connect, and process their stories of trauma, the city turned to a different resource: art.

Expression Beyond Words

During the recovery process, the Joplin community realized the need to help community members process their experiences. “Someone may be too traumatized to talk about an event, but are able to express their story through art,” said Patrick Tuttle, Director of the Joplin Convention & Visitors Bureau.

With the involvement of the community, many public art projects were created to help Joplin tell its story. Painted murals downtown depict images of Joplin faces and history. A series of sculptures throughout the city were sold to help provide funding for a disaster recovery summit. A Joplin-born composer created and performed a piece of music about the tragedy.

A local nonprofit, Art Feeds Joplin, provided art therapy programs for many Joplin children traumatized by the tornado. Joplin Proud, a group of volunteers working together to commemorate the tornado, coordinated shared creative activities for residents, including children’s art projects and a community-wide journaling experience.

The culmination of this series of projects was a plan by Joplin Proud to construct a free-standing mural in Mercy Park, a new park located on the former site of St. John’s Regional Medical Center. This mural would serve as a lasting tribute to the spirit of survival and recovery established in Joplin, and an interactive piece of art that could be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike for decades to come.

On the Wings of Butterflies

The art throughout Joplin took on many forms, but the main theme running through all of it was butterflies.

The image of a butterfly has meaning in terms of recovery – “The metamorphic growth of a butterfly is symbolic of our recovery as a community and regional hub,” said Tuttle – but the primary motivation for using butterfly imagery came from a phenomenon reported throughout Joplin in the wake of the tornado.

After the tornado, many local children reported seeing and being protected by butterflies or “butterfly people” when the tornado hit. Some believed they were angels; others felt them to be a more indescribable presence.

But the butterfly stories spread quickly and became a powerful image for the community as they came together to recover from the storm. From painted murals to public sculptures to community children’s art projects, the butterfly theme was present everywhere.

Tuttle, inspired by murals he had seen in New York City that allowed visitors to stand between large sets of wings to have their photos taken, proposed a similar idea for the mural in Mercy Park, using the image of butterfly wings. With funding support from a State Farm grant, Joplin Proud was now ready to make the vision a reality.

The Artists

To design and build the mural, Joplin turned to local artists with long-standing connections to the city. A.J. and Jordan Wood, a father-and-son team of artists who work under the name Mythiq Art & Mural, were chosen to create the imagery for the mural. A.J., who grew up nearby in southeast Kansas, spent time in Joplin as a child and moved his family there in 2002.

A.J. was displaced from his studio when the tornado hit, and continued his work in his home. “We had no electricity, so my wife set up some oil lamps and candles by my easel so I could work. That week I created three paintings that were auctioned to help a family who had suffered terrible loss in the storm.”

To make this mural a durable and lasting effort, the community turned to Paul Whitehill of Whitehill Enterprises, an experienced, professional mural artist specializing in tile murals.

Paul has lived in Joplin for 22 years, and moved his production facility there in 2002. The facility was outside the tornado’s path, but three of his employees lost their homes in the disaster. “Nothing in all my travels and life's experience could have prepared me for the devastation of the May 22nd tornado,” said Paul. “I was in shock as I surveyed the path of the tornado. Terms like war zone or bomb blast could not even come close to what I saw over the first few days.”

Putting the Pieces Together

Shortly after the tornado, A.J. wrote a butterfly-themed poem about the experience, and had been photographing butterflies with a powerful zoom lens to examine the fine details of their wings.

Said A.J., “When butterfly wings are magnified, you see all kinds of interesting patterns of construction. It reminded me of the patterns of life and how the patterns that hold a community together can be broken apart and put back together again. So I decided to illustrate a butterfly composed of thousands of interlocking patterns as a symbol of how thousands of individuals living in our area are bound together into a beautiful whole.”

The finished mural was unveiled on August 11, 2016, in a ceremony that included representatives from the City of Joplin, Mercy, Walmart (who provided funding for the wall) and State Farm (who funded the creation of the mural).

A Community Rises Again

Now six years removed from the tornado, Joplin’s recovery work continues, but the city has made incredible progress. Nearly 2,000 homes have been built and 300 new businesses established, numerous road improvement, trail, and park projects are underway, and the hospital – now called Mercy Hospital Joplin – has been rebuilt. The city’s population is at its highest point ever, having grown in the years since the tornado struck.

The devastation has not been forgotten, however – with the lives lost and memories long, the storm still echoes. “We are healing, but we still have a ways to go,” said Tuttle. “Every time a thunderstorm rolls in, the tension can be felt. Some people may never move past this. But our economy is booming with new business and growth, and improvements throughout Joplin are noticeable.”

For the artists, the mural has been a rewarding project. Said A.J., “We love the new park and finished mural, and to see people using it every day. One lady said of her mural selfie, ‘I just feel like I’m wrapped up in a great big quilt’! I thought that was the best compliment ever.”

Paul has appreciated the result as well. “I am so pleased with the finished mural. It faces to the west and its colors are enhanced by the light of the setting sun. The mural has become one of the most popular destinations in the city. People from all over the world have their pictures taken there which get posted on social media. I hope that people who visit will learn of the strength within my community in the face of disaster.”

Said A.J., “The whole installation is forward focused and that is what we need as a community. I hope to see more flowers planted near the mural to help set it off – especially flowers that attract real butterflies.”