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BY: COLE TRAHAN

On Saturday, July 31, starting by 8:30 a.m., two women will run 14 kilometers on the Pine Mountain Trail to raise awareness of human trafficking.

They are Maggie Turner, the founder of nonprofit organization Illuminate Justice, and Rebecca Hilley, a church mobilization volunteer for Illuminate Justice. Illuminate Justice is a nonprofit that fights against human trafficking.

Turner estimated that the run will cover 8.6 miles and take two and a half hours.  The run will begin and end at the F.D. Roosevelt State Park Visitor’s Center.

Turner said her organization was created around February of last year. It now has about 12 members.

Part of the organization’s five-year plan is to be able to provide legal services for trafficking survivors in Atlanta, Columbus, and LaGrange. Turner is studying law at Georgia State College of Law to be able to provide these services.

The organization’s prevention efforts are geared toward youth in middle school and high school.

“Our prevention education program focuses on youth in foster care because traffickers see them as easy targets,” she said.

“They know these youth have already experienced abuse and neglect at home. They know they’ve probably been exposed to dysfunctional and violent relationships. They know that the transient nature of foster care separates these children from friends and other important relationships and of