Roses and rescue

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, May 5th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Combating exploitation during Derby Week.

Big events bring big crowds—and with them, sometimes hidden costs.

REICHARD: This past weekend, more than 150,000 people packed Churchill Downs. But just beyond the track, another group was at work, reaching women in need.

WORLD’s Amy Eytchison has the story.

AMY EYTCHISON: The rose is one of the Kentucky Derby’s many rich traditions:

AUDIO: Welcome to Churchill Downs.

Along with the hats, the drinks, and the call to post.

SOUND: [Bugle]

Roses became the race’s official flower after they were presented to women attending a Derby party. By the 1890s, race officials would drape a rose garland around the winning horse’s neck.

But the rose has another significance for Rachelle Starr, founder of Scarlet Hope, a Louisville-based nonprofit. For nearly two decades, she’s led an outreach to a different kind of woman—a woman who is either trafficked or involved in the sex trade in and around Louisville. 

Their calling card is a single red rose with information about a help line.

STARR: Would you like a rose today? How are you? / I'm good. / Good! We're just out here telling women that Jesus loves them and see how you are today and how we can pray for you.

Scarlet Hope staff and volunteers do outreach work year-round, but make a special four-day push leading up to the Derby and other sporting events like the Super Bowl. They load up in vans to hit the streets, hotels, and strip clubs where exploitation occurs. 

Starr remembers one woman who cried and fell into her arms when she saw the rose.

STARR: She had just been sold from her boyfriend, which is her pimp. She had a very, very dark encounter with what we would call a John, a customer. And I asked her if she wanted to get out, and if she felt like she had a choice.

According to Louisville Tourism, the Derby is the region’s largest tourism driver, bringing 400 million dollars in economic impact.

STARR: The Derby is not the problem, but the Derby increases all of that exploitation, tourism, and all of those things in our city…

Churchill Downs—the Derby’s racetrack—sits amid a center of sexual exploitation.

STARR: What I could consider the capital of the industry in Louisville, KY. She was right in the middle of, you know, the elite, the upper class, the people going to the Derby…

Jeremy Murrell is Deputy Commissioner of Kentucky’s Office of Counter Exploitation. He says his office fights human trafficking year round, but big events increase the challenge.

MURRELL: While we can't comment on specifics, these crimes often do increase during Derby week.

Fighting them means involving local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI and Homeland Security.

Ricky Lynn was Kentucky’s first human trafficking detective. He’s participated in dozens of stings.

LYNN: We have over 100 websites in Kentucky you can buy people on, and we average about 9000 ads a day…

During the past decade, Lynn has helped train officers and community members to deal with predators and victims. He says it’s important not to sensationalize, but to use the focus around a sporting event to get more people involved in helping out.

LYNN: If I post an ad online for a 14 year old kid, somebody's probably there in five minutes to pick that person up, whether it's an adult or kid.

Starr stays focused on the victims. She doesn’t make a distinction between women who are being trafficked, using sex for survival, or sex for sale:

STARR: We are there to minister to anybody in the strip club,..in a brothel, anybody on the street, online, in an illicit massage parlor. And within that context of those establishments, we find human trafficking victims.

The woman she met in the streets outside Churchill Downs was being trafficked. She didn’t think she could leave that life.

STARR: And I said, you have a choice, and you can actually go with us today, and we will get you help. She got in our vehicle, our van, and we took her to the hospital, and then we continued to walk alongside her for many, many months after that.

She went into rehab for an addiction and completed the program.

This summer, the ministry will expand efforts to several cities that are hosting the World Cup.

STARR: This is exactly why Jesus came to this earth. He came to die for all of this, you know? Every sin and every broken piece. But these women often haven't been told that, and they certainly don't believe that God loves them, or that God is for them…

SOUND: [Crowd cheering]

On Saturday, the 40-pound garland placed on the winning horse’s neck featured 400 red “Freedom” roses individually sewn into satin backing.

But other roses could be called “Freedom” roses, too. They went to women who may never set foot inside the gates of Churchill Downs, but who now have the resources to start down a different path.

For WORLD, I’m Amy Eytchison, with additional reporting from Jasmine Friesen in Louisville, Kentucky.

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