TRAVAILS OF A MOM WHO DID AND DIDN'T WIN LIFE'S LOTTERY

If the Powerball numbers had come out differently, a local mom named
Denise could have enrolled her 14-year-old daughter in one of those
fancy wilderness programs or boot camps. That is, if she could find her.

But Denise hasn't been lucky. Not with the lottery. Not with locating
her runaway girl. Not even with trying to have her daughter arrested.

She called the authorities some time ago when she found a pipe used
to smoke methamphetamines in her daughter's bedroom. That didn't work.

She then found a bag of marijuana in her room and called authorities again.

"I was informed by the responding officers that unless they had found
the drugs in her possession or had witnessed her smoking it, there
was nothing they could do," she says.

Denise called truant officers because her daughter, a high school
freshman, had continuously skipped school. She's called police
because her daughter is a persistent runaway. The girl admitted to
her mother that she smokes cigarettes, drinks alcohol, uses drugs and more.

Denise is so frustrated and worried that she went to the courthouse
to find out if she could have her daughter declared a ward of the
state so that she could be put in a structured setting. But that's a
long involved process that may not work for Denise, and she is
worried that something bad will happen to her daughter before any
paperwork could go through.

She is a single mother with another child and not a lot of money.

"I wonder if my only hope is if I hit the lottery," she says. "Maybe
then I can afford the kind of place that I believe my daughter needs.
That is, unless she commits the kind of crime that forces her into
the system. I just don't want her to become a statistic. I feel like
there is no way to stop that from happening."

Keith Searcy, a crisis intervention specialist and mediator with
Maricopa County, told me that the people he works with hear from a
dozen or so parents like Denise each day. There is a county
department called Families in Need of Services that is designed to
help. Its number is (602) 506-4308. They work with parents who have
money and those who don't. Those who have private insurance and those
who don't. Denise has worked with a counselor there. She and her
daughter were supposed to participate in a program together. But her
daughter ran away again.

Denise contacted me only after she had tried to reach every
government official she could think of. As she said in a note:

"The letter (that I wrote) with regard to my 14-year-old daughter and
her ever increasingly ungovernable behavior was sent to a number of
Arizona governmental agencies, politicians and law enforcement
personnel. The list of individuals to whom this letter was sent
included Governor Janet Napolitano, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, numerous
Maricopa County Commissioners, state Republican and Democratic
leaders as well as to city officials. Only one state representative
politely responded, only to inform me that there was little that
could be done at his level and suggested contacting those previously
mentioned on the mailing list."

I told her there's not much a news writer could do for her besides
listen, and maybe share her story.

"That's more than I've gotten from most people," she says.

She has contacted authorities once more, and printed fliers,
desperate to bring her daughter home, again.

Like every parent, Denise felt like she had hit the lottery when her
girl was born. She had no idea that she'd have to win another one to
save her from herself.