That evening Jason made sure to watch the channel eleven local news. He wanted to see how his interview with Jaime Orlando came out and what kind of reaction it received. The feature about Jason’s Network came on just before the end of the newscast. The story started out with some shots of Daniel’s band and the audience’s reaction to the music. Then it showed Jason and Eric speaking in brief clips, and ended with the interview Jaime did with Jason. Jaime’s report also contained information from the press release that he had received from Ruth Fiorre. During the shots of the actual assembly, Jaime reminded the viewers who Jason was, and how his foundation was formed to help teenaged crime victims.
“With the start of Jason’s Network, Jason is taking his fight against predators and those who would hurt or abuse kids directly to the community,” Jaime reported. The two news anchors added their favorable comments about the new network and its purpose in the local community.
The next day, Jason called the Webmaster for the Whatever Foundation to see if there had been any response yet to the assembly. “Yes, I already have over 300 responses. I don’t know how many kids saw your program yesterday but I am guessing that this is a very good return for just one day.”
Over the next few weeks, as Jason and the others did more of the assemblies at other high school, other media outlets picked up on the story. There were two additional reports on local television stations, stories in the local press and on news radio. The foundation had purchased advertising time on several of the radio stations that were popular with teenagers to follow up on the assemblies and remind students how important it was for them to join Jason’s Network.
Within two weeks, there were several thousand signups for the network. Another very lucky thing happened to spur its growth. Two kids reported in separately about a friend of theirs who had not been his normal self lately. The kids had both noticed some serious bruises on their friend when they were swimming together in one of the kid’s swimming pool. A counselor was sent to the young friend’s school for an interview, and eventually the friend revealed that he was being fondled by an uncle, and had been touched inappropriately several times. When the young victim tried to resist, he was beaten by the uncle, hence the bruises. The young victim was warned in no uncertain terms to describe the bruises as a result of a bicycle crash.
Quickly the authorities were brought in to investigate and the uncle was arrested. Although no names were ever used, due to the young age of the victim, the fact that here was an example of how Jason’s Network could actually work made enrollment and interest in the program go viral. Signups for the network doubled overnight, and the story of its first successful intervention against a predator began to receive national attention.
The national affiliate of channel eleven would often use stories that were first run locally if they were good human interest stories and something different. As a result, Jason’s network made the national news. Jason found out about this one evening when his dad, Bill Hunter, was watching the national news. Jason was in a nearby room when his father yelled for him to come into the living room. Part of the newscast used a clip from Jaime Orlando’s interview with him.
“Look, Jason!” Bill Hunter exclaimed. “Your network has made the national news!”
“This must be Jaime Orlando’s doing,” Jason said after the story was over. “I wasn’t aware of any national interest. But some of the students at school who signed up told me that they have put links and postings on their social media personal sites about the network. I will ask Henry Foster if we should create a page for it.
Over the next couple of weeks, interest continued to build. There were inquiries to the foundation website about how to start similar networks in other parts of the country. Locally, signups continued to build, especially due to the favorable coverage in the media. The Whatever Foundation sent out flyers about the program to other local organizations devoted to activities for kids, youth groups, schools, and civic groups.
At the next board meeting of the Whatever Foundation, Jason congratulated his staff on the great job they were doing to implement Jason’s Network. Everyone was very pleased with the results so far.