Candace Doddridge: A Brief Biography

Candace Doddridge, more famously known as Candy Lightner, was born on May 30th, 1946 (“Candy Lightner Biography”). She grew up in Pasadena, California, but later went to Sacramento to go to American River College. She grew up to work as a dental assistant, and later married Steve Lightner, with who she had 3 children. These three children included two twins, Serena and Cari, and a son named Travis. Unfortunately, Candy and Steve decided to divorce, and after, she moved to Fair Oaks with her kids (“Candy Lightner Biography”). However, on May 3rd, 1980, tragedy struck. Candy’s 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was hit by a car driven by a man named Clarence William Busch whilst walking down a street (Griffins). The car struck her with such a force
In the past, she had been rear-ended by a drunk driver, causing severe damage to Serena. Also, Travis was just 4 years old when he got run over right in front of his own home (Griffins). His injuries, especially the brain damage, still affect him to this day. Busch, the driver who hit Cari, was a repeated offender of driving under the influence, and Candy was informed that he would highly unlikely receive a large punishment (Peters). Infuriated with this fact, she decided to make a change. Just four days after her daughter’s death, she started Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), which is now known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (Peters). She quit her job and used all her funds to support this non-profit organization. After travelling across the country, speaking of her experience, and inspiring many citizens, Candy has helped MADD gain the recognition it deserves. Through MADD, drunk driving rates have significantly decreased by thirty percent. It is also what helped raise the legal drinking age in the United States to 21(Griffins). MADD now has 600 chapters across the world and is continuing to prevent accidents from drunk driving (La
This huge life changing organization is also the reason why my own daughter, Serena, decided to start Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) (“Candy Lightner Biography”). So many people have come to support me on this great journey. They are all the reason why MADD, and also SADD, has had such a great success on keeping the streets safer for our families, and also ourselves. This is not only true for the United States, but MADD has established chapters in Canada, Guam, Australia, Great Britain, Puerto Rico, and New Zealand (La Vigne). To add on to these great accomplishments, by 2014, MADD had helped to save over three hundred thousand lives (La Vigne). This is one of the many achievements we have made towards our goal “to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime, and prevent underage drinking” (La Vigne). However, we can all tell that I am still not happy, as evident with the fact that I am no longer a part of MADD. Every single day I get someone asking me why I am opposing the people that were with me through thick and thin and supporting my ideas. You see, the thing is, the purpose of MADD has shifted to the wrong side. People are no longer focusing on preventing drunk driving, but are now focusing on banning alcohol. I did