Jefferson Awards: One finalist shares her story of survival
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Alicia Kozakiewicz of Crafton Heights was abducted by a man she met on the Internet. In the years since her rescue, she educates parents and children about Internet safety.
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At 13, Alicia Kozakiewicz found herself the victim of events too ghastly to imagine.
On New Year's Day 2002, a 38-year-old man she had met in an Internet chat room picked her up at her family's home in Crafton Heights and drove her to his Virginia townhouse. For four days, he tortured, sexually assaulted and chained her to the bedroom floor until FBI agents freed her and reunited her with her parents. Her captor was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
In the years since her rescue, Ms. Kozakiewicz, now 21, has transformed her horrific experience into The Alicia Project -- a program through which she educates others about how to avoid the dangers lurking on the Internet.
Her speaking engagements have taken her from the classrooms of McKees Rocks to the halls of Congress, where she's lobbied for boosting funding for protecting minors from Internet predators.
"When I'm up there [sharing my story], the 13-year-old girl is speaking about what happened," she said. "It's the 13-year-old girl telling them, 'Hey, look ... you need to protect yourself because it does happen.' "
She balances her volunteer work with two part-time jobs and full-time studies at Point Park University, where she's a senior psychology major with a concentration in forensics.
Because of her volunteer efforts, she has been selected as one of seven finalists for Most Outstanding Volunteer of the Year for the 2009 Jefferson Awards for Public Service.
The winner, to be announced at an award ceremony Feb. 11, will represent Western Pennsylvania at the national Jefferson Awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., this summer. The program is administered locally by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with sponsorship by Highmark, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.
WOMEN of Southwestern PA Inc. will donate $1,000 to the National Association to Protect Children on behalf of Ms. Kozakiewicz.
Her cousin, Joanna Driggers, 40, of Imperial, nominated the young woman for the award because of all the financial support and public awareness she has raised for Internet safety issues.
First Published February 1, 2010 12:00 am
