Mother starts Help Save the Next Girl at Bedford Middle

When Virginia Tech student and Roanoke County resident Morgan Harrington went missing in 2009 and her remains were found in 2010, Bedford mother Shannon Jurkus said she was captivated by her story.

"She did nothing wrong. She went to a concert with her friends," said Jurkus, the leader of Bedford Middle School's chapter of Help Save the Next Girl, a national nonprofit founded by Harrington's mother, Gil.

"... It captivated me that something this simple turned into her being taken and murdered."

Harrington disappeared in Charlottesville during a Metallica concert, and her remains were found three months later. In March 2016, Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder and abduction of Harrington and received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole or release.

Later in 2010, Gil Harrington founded Help Save the Next Girl to promote personal safety and responsibility for young women from grade school to college through education, family/victim outreach and legislative advocacy.

"This all occurred organically," Harrington said in a phone interview May 3. "Our gut instinct was to make sure other girls are not killed, and how do we do that? We need to talk to them and educate them."

Personal safety, especially for women, is an issue of our time, Harrington added. It is a local, national and global issue.

"I think we have learned along the course of this is to be the change," she said. "Through determination and passion, and Shannon certainly embodies all of that."

There are now 55 chapters of HSTNG, mostly in Virginia but also all over the nation, Vice President Jane Lillian Vance said.

Jurkus, mother to an 8-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, said she was amazed by how the Harringtons handled the tragedy of their daughter's death and began HSTNG.

"You start thinking, when you have your own kids, if that was me," she said. "It could happen to someone else."

The more Jurkus began to pay attention, she said, she heard of more girls going missing all over the world.

In 2015, Jurkus founded the first HSTNG chapter in Bedford at Bedford Middle School. She now has about 30 active members.

Harrington said Jurkus is a "force to be reckoned with" and that the crux of the organization is having great leadership with enthusiasm.

"She has infused the students with enthusiasm, and they have been creative and dynamic," she said.

Though most chapters are in colleges and high schools, Jurkus saw a need for middle school students.

"Why wait until [high school]? Middle school years are some of the hardest years, and having a daughter approaching that age, I wanted to do something," Jurkus said.

At the middle school, things are done a little differently because the girls are younger and they don't want to scare them, Jurkus said.

Rhetta Watkins, principal at Bedford Middle School, said she is appreciative of Jurkus bringing the program to the school.

"It's very important that young ladies have strategies to implement in case they are put in a situation that would be dangerous for them," she said.

The girls have been very receptive to the program and are much more aware of what they should do if they are contacted by someone who may be trying to cause harm in person or through the internet, she said.

"It has become a need to understand that danger doesn't just happen in big cities. They are in our neighborhoods and right now the highway," Watkins said.

Kaycie Bird, a sixth-grader at Bedford Middle School, said she is part of the organization because it's important to know how to protect herself.

"Being a part of Help Save the Next Girl has also helped me to meet new friends and be active in my community," she said. "It is important that we have Help Save the Next Girl because it helps more and more kids every day be safe from danger."

Jurkus' hope is for all of the middle and high schools in Bedford to join the organization so they can come together as a single chapter.

She said Forest Middle School and Liberty High School are in the process of starting their own chapters.