Bostonian's guide to radical New Year's resolutions, featuring locals who have changed themselves or the world, or both...

Case Study From Packing Lunches to Saving Lives

Jenifer Hoffman's life was a heartbreaking roller coaster ride. But instead of giving up, she decided to give back. Big Time.
As told by Blythe Copeland

During a triathlon in 2005, I collided with another biker and hit the pavement at 35 miles an hour. I sustained multiple broken bones. Two weeks later, I was physically assaulted by a neighbor. Then my daughter went off to school, after I'd been a stay at home mom for nine years. Soon after, my friend was diagnosed with cancer and my grandmother died. Everything was out of control.

I looked around and thought, this is not the world I want to show my children. So I started putting positive messages and words of encouragement - "up and over," "tough warrior princess," "make it happen" - on T-shirts. It turned into a company called Emotional Armor; I give all of the net profits to charity. I didn't go after Red Sox players Curt Schilling and Gabe Kapler, whose wife, Lisa, is a dating violence survivor, but soon we were working together. State Senators have also opened doors for me and gotten my line into hospitals. And one of the 52 Children's Miracle Network kids is planning to wear the "natural born hero" shirt to meet President Bush at the White House.

The Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, the violence prevention center in my town, had previously asked me to join its board, but that felt too hands off, too distant. After the assault, I thought of someone else having to experience what I had encountered and live with it. Two days later I joined.

Prevention is all-important...What if you teach children in a curriculum based setting that they're amazing, that they're extraordinary, that their voices matter? Make someone feel extraordinary, and they'll be less likely to harm others. I have started an innovative, self confidence, empowerment program for children that will remind them of that very thing in a fun, hands on pervasive level within the classroom.

Now, I look at the things that I have surmounted. I think if you're still here you should consider yourself lucky and fortunate to have learned a powerful life lesson, even from the most painful experiences. There was a lot of chaos in my life, but I've created something fantastic from it. I've never been more grateful. I've never been more aware.

Boston Magazine January 2007