Tesla Is Donating Overnight Test Drives To Help Fight Human Trafficking

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Tesla and the Westin Hotel have donated raffle prizes for an event next month put together by Atlanta’s Miles Through Time Automotive Museum that is aiming to break a Guinness Record and fight human trafficking. This is a two-part event. The first part will be the Guinness Record attempt at the longest Tesla parade ever, and then the second part is a fundraiser afterparty at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North.

The second part will be an after-parade afterparty to raise funds for Operation Underground Railroad, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing victims who are being trafficked. O.U.R. has an Ops Team made up of former CIA, past and current law enforcement, and highly skilled operatives that lead coordinated identification and extraction efforts — while partnering with local law enforcement around the world.

Graphic by Mile Through Time, used with permission.

Tesla officially came on board with the record attempt in October and will also be bringing the Model Y to participate in the parade. Other prices include a weekend stay with breakfast at the Westin in Sandy Springs, GA, or at the Westin in Savannah, GA. George and Lori Guerin are donating an Abstract Ocean Ultra-Bright Light bundle made for a Model Y, which comes with 5 white bulbs, 2 white footwell bulbs, a spudger, and pigtails (cable extensions). I’m also donating handmade jewelry, including my first ever pendant made with 24K gold.

One of my good friends, Hart Deer, is a talented musician and will be performing live along with our friend Kaye, who plays the cello, at the afterparty/after-parade event. Hart has the experience and a passion for helping those in need. He’s worked with Covenant House GA, which focuses on helping homeless youth get off the streets and into a safe place.

I’m actually going to attend this in person, and I hope that more businesses will donate raffle prizes. If you would like to donate prizes, click here to contact the museum’s executive director, Sean Matthis. O.U.R’s Vice President of Development, Nate Lewis, will be speaking at the after parade event. Georgia Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols also pitched in and confirmed that the Georgia State Patrol will have a unit made up of 10 motorcycles for the parade. Eliza Bleu, who is a survivor of human trafficking turned survivor advocate, will also be there to share her story. Eliza penned her thoughts about the event and Elon Musk in a short yet powerful blog post titled “Technology, Elon Musk, and Human Trafficking.”

Technology, Elon Musk, & Human Trafficking

In her post, Eliza noted that many people may not see any common ground between Tesla and solving the issue of human trafficking. However, as she took the time to think about her speech that she will give at the after-parade, she asked herself questions such as What does Tesla mean to me? How do I view Elon Musk? How do I view the global epidemic of human trafficking?

She beautifully captured that feeling of helplessness when one faces a huge problem — something I’ve personally endured as well. “That feeling of extreme hopelessness makes me want to give up the fight for change. In order to get out of that funk, I often think of Elon Musk,” she wrote, while pointing out how he seems to be fearless as he turns the impossible into a reality. Elon Musk inspired her to see the problem of human trafficking from a different perspective — as a problem that will require creativity and thinking outside of the box to solve.

As with Elon Musk, many in her own movement — the fight against human trafficking — have laughed in her face when she proposed out-of-the-box solutions for survivors. People have told her that her ideas don’t make sense and that they will never work. Eliza wrote that she is more inclined to believe that the impossible is still possible and the reason is her own case. “There was no reason that I should have survived human trafficking, but dreamers believed in me until I believed in myself,” while adding that her advocate never gave up hope.

An idea that crosses her mind is using artificial intelligence to help fight human trafficking, and she has pointed out that the technology available can be used for the good to help humanity. She also shared that human trafficking is mostly an online crime, and ending the online portion of this crime would free up resources to tackle the offline part of the crime.

Her post is a well-written, hopeful read that you can read here. You’ll need to sign up for her community (it’s free) to read the full post, but it’s totally worth doing so and supporting her.

It is estimated that between 20 million and 40 million people are in what is known as modern slavery all around the world, done through human trafficking. The United Nations refers to this as the “hidden figure of crime” and estimates show that only 0.04% of survivors of human trafficking cases are identified. The rest are undetected.

How You Can Help

If you are a business owner with products to share, you can sponsor prizes for the raffle. O.U.R. has a special donation page set up for those donating through the Tesla event. The goal is to raise $10,000. If you are interested in sponsoring prizes, please get in touch with Sean Matthis.


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Johnna Crider

Johnna owns less than one share of $TSLA currently and supports Tesla's mission. She also gardens, collects interesting minerals and can be found on TikTok

Johnna Crider has 1996 posts and counting. See all posts by Johnna Crider