Fred Guttenberg - Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope

Praise for Find the Helpers

Hopefully, this book will move you, upset you, enrage you, and, ultimately, inspire you to be the best Helper you can be. Because life is so much better for those who are helped AND for those who do the helping. Fred suffered the ultimate loss and chose to turn it into the ultimate mission: to protect our children from gun violence. As a career homicide prosecutor, I had the unimaginable privilege of working with hundreds of homicide families. No family should ever have to bear that horrific label. Yet once a family suffers the loss of a loved one to violent crime, some feel that the label homicide family will forever define them. Fred is living proof that we need not be defined by our darkest day. In his painful yet ultimately uplifting memoir, Fred Guttenberg is a living tribute to the triumph of purpose over tragedy. And he has helpe d us all.

Glenn Kirschner, Legal Analyst and Former US Army prosecutor

If youre looking to discover the best of us during the worst of times, read Fred Guttenbergs Find the Helpers . Fred shares his journey of unimaginable grief at losing his brother to a 9/11-related illness and his daughter at Parkland. Yet, from Freds loss, we read about his strength to not only find the helpers around him, but to become one t o others.

Congressman Eri c Swalwell

Fred Guttenbergs life with his family before Valentines Day 2018 sounds almost magical. He had two wonderful children, a loving wife, a successful track record as a businessman, and he lived in Parkland, Florida, a community considered one of the safest in the nation. That all changed on Feb. 14, 2018, when his daughter Jaime was killed in her classroom along with sixteen other students and teachers. Like so many others who are survivors of gun violence, there was Freds life before losing Jaime and Freds life afterward. This book talks about his life afterward, but in doing so it affirms something much bigger. This book is so important because it lifts up the essential role of helpersfriends, neighbors, fellow advocates, elected officials, and even strangerswithout whom real change, and the energy necessary to be a change agent, would be impossible. In the disconnected, now socially isolated world in which we live, Fred reaffirms the central importance of real human connection, often at the most random moments, that can make the difference between marching on or giving up. As I write this, our nation is experiencing an awakening of consciousness to profoundly disturbing issues. I hope all who want to make a change in this world for the better read this amazing book and understand how helpers made a difference in Freds life and how every one of us has a role in creating the change we want to see in the world. Simply being a helper can be the secret ingredient, the catalyst, for the real and sustaining changes needed to make our world a better and safer place for everyone.

Kris Brown, Presiden t of Brady

We each have something to learn from Fred Guttenberg. Amid heartbreaking loss, Fred has found reason to press forward. In Find the Helpers , Fred shares of finding support and comfort from those he knew and those he had not yet met, a journey that would lead him to friendships with the Vice President and with the Speaker of the House. And he shares of his enduring commitment to ending gun violence through dogged and tireless advocacy. Fred once shared with me that he wished he had started the work to end gun violence before it was too late for him and his family. His lesson is now ours. His words now our calling.

Former Congressman D avid Jolly

No one should experience what Fred Guttenberg has, not once but twice. Fred has taken searing loss and made it a mission. His story is extraordinary, perhaps all the more so because he didnt seek anything more than a good life for his loved ones, a simple, ordinary happiness and togetherness. Fred Guttenberg is a dad and brother whose deep love for his family was put to the test by the crucible of grief, shock, and pain. He took that and turned it into a passion for taking a stand and making a difference. May you be inspired by Freds book Find the Helpers . I k now I am.

Aly ssa Milano

Fred Guttenberg has lived through the unimaginable. The shooting death of his beautiful daughter Jaime in Parkland was reported all over the world. It is impossible to know the anguish that Fred carries after such a catastrophic loss, but because of this beautiful book, we are shown the way toward hope, belief in the good of humanity, and discovering purpose. Through his story we meet all the Helpers who helped carry his pain when he couldnt, and we see Fred, now strong and focused, a fierce leader and compassionat e Helper.

Deb ra Messing

Few people better exemplify the power of turning tragedy into action than Fred Guttenberg. His grace, resilience, and courage in the face of unspeakable heartbreak serve as inspiration to us all. In the fight to end gun violence in America, Fred has not only been there for me, but has also found ways to engage new voices and build new bridges while honoring the memory of his daughter. This book offers powerful and heartening lessons on how we can help one another move forward and build a safer, more ju st world.

Former Congresswoman Gabb y Giffords

FIND

THE

HELPERS

Fred Guttenberg

Mango Publishing

Coral Gables

Copyright 2020 by Fred Guttenberg.
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

I was at Trumps State of the Union. I Shouldnt Have Been, Newsweek Opinion, used with permission of www.Newsweek.com. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

One Year After the Day I Lost My Child to Gun Violence, Newsweek Opinion, used with permission of www.Newsweek.com. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

Image on page 141 was used with permission from Andy Piness, Reuters New & Media.

Images on pages 101, 121, and 165 were used with permission from AP Images.

Cover Design: Gabi Mechaber
Layout & Design: Gabi Mechaber

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Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me about Recovery, Purpose, and Hope

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2020940929
ISBN: (print) 978-1-64250-535-1, (ebook) 978-1-64250-536-8
BISAC category code BISAC: BIO032000BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY/ Social Activists

Printed in the United States of America

To all victims of gun violence and all who grieve a loss.

Table of Contents

Unconfirmed reports of a school shooting coming out of Parkland, Florida, this morning

I heard it on my car radio on February 14, 2018. Valent ines Day.

It was early in Los Angeles. I cursed the dashboard and raced through the perverse calculus every parent goes through when they hear this news in the age of normalized mass shootings. Maybe the report was wrong. Or maybe the shooter would be apprehended without casualties. Or maybe just one kid was killed or injured. Or maybe just a couple of kids. Because that would be better. Just a few lives snuffed out, just a few families capacity to experience unmitigated joy obliterated forever by a sorrow that is permanent and deep.