Welcome to Aspen's RAINNmaker Page!

About Me
I am a freshman at Colorado College, and on my second day of college I was raped. The young man moved on. I still haven't.

I believe that getting help is the single most critical step a victim of sexual assault can take on the path to recovery. It is vital that victims have access to professional support services, and RAINN provides a safe place where victims and their friends and family can go to receive free, live, and anonymous support around the clock.

This coming spring and summer, I am walking 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail. I ask you to support me--to donate as little as a penny per mile ($26.50) and as much as you can afford. I think about my second night of college everyday. Please help me--and thousands of other college women--move on.

UPDATE: Success! BEAUTIFUL success.

I backpacked from Mexico to Canada. My five-month, 2,650-mile hike carried me through the Mojave Desert, the High Sierra, the volcano-lands of northern California and southern Oregon, the Cascades. And I traversed all that viewing an end more important than Canada; I walked from Mexico to Canada to raise money for RAINN.

But I gained more than money from the hike.

Alone among sunshine and cliffs and trees and storms and strangers, I found happiness. I found a community of hikers, also backpacking the country on the Pacific Crest Trail. I found confidence, closure, and purpose.

And I found, with another hiker, friendship. He and I are now married.

Justin Matis, I love you.