Mitzi Perdue
Mitzi is an anti-human trafficking advocate, a former rice farmer, past president of the 40,000 member American Agri-Women. In the 1990s, and early 2000s her nationally syndicated column, "The Environment and You," was the most widely syndicated environmental column in the US. Recently she’s written a biography of Mark Victor Hansen, the Chicken Soup for the Soul guy. Hansen is in the Guinness Book of Worlds’ Records for selling half a billion books. Royalties for Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless will go to helping Law Enforcement in Ukraine.
Like many of you, Mitzi wanted to do something to help the people of Ukraine, and she also wanted to help other people make a difference for the Ukrainian people. After spending time on the ground in Ukraine, visiting bombed out police stations and learning something of the trauma that his a country when lawlessness takes over, she came to believe that one of the great unmet needs in Ukraine today is helping law enforcement recover from the invaders' attempts to destroy it.
To help raise funds for helping law enforcement in Ukraine, she is putting up for auction a rare and historic near-perfect emerald that came from the sunken treasure ship, Atocha. It was a gift from her late husband, Frank Perdue. When a volunteer for the Kyiv Region Police told her, knowing that it is her most precious posssission, "You don't have to do this," she answered, "Actually, I do have to do this. By enabling Ukrainian law enforcement to help prevent human trafficking, which is one of their specialties, this ring could save many women from being sex trafficked. I think Frank would have been overjoyed to see this use of his ring."
