Michele TeBrake is a philanthropist, advocate and Cold Spring businesswoman. Her shop, Trendsetters Boutique, is a fun little spot on Main Street that sells fashion accessories β jewelry, hats, scarves, pursesβ and was established in to provide support to charitable organizations. Michele aims to support causes locally, regionally, statewide, and globally. Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe, and girls living in rural areas have become easy prey to sex traffickers.
Moreover, they want to believe their daughters are able to earn money. Freedom Home is a refuge; a home where girls and women who have escaped the sex trade can live and heal. Michele has been working with the organization for about four years and each month donates a substantial amount of her Trendsetter profits to the group.
She is also a speaker for the organization and stocks their nonprofit boutique; all boutique profits go back into programs and services. Breaking Free offers support and programming designed to help women reclaim their lives. The Land of 10, Lakes sells, on average, 10, girls and women into sex slavery each year, and that number is increasing rapidly. Sex trafficking, is the fastest-growing black market crime in the world, second only to drugs.
The Twin Cities is the thirteenth largest sex trafficking market in the nation. Another surprising hot spot is Duluth where vulnerable girls, especially Native Americans, are targeted. Some girls as young as ten years old have been lured away with promises of nothing more than clothing, shoes, gifts and nice meals.
A girl trapped in the sex trade is expected to service an average of eight to ten men each day. Girls and teens are found in all venues of the sex trade, including brothels, online escort services, massage parlors, strip clubs, and street prostitution. The website, backpage. Though the pictures of the escorts appear to be adult women, it is often a minor who actually answers the call. According to Homeland Security, the agency charged with investigating and fighting labor and sex trafficking, the crime occurs in every county of Minnesota.
