member
profile
Jerry White (front center)
provides a little rhythm
for a band of Cambodian
land-mine survivors.
SURVIVORCORPS.ORG
How to
survive
a crisis
“EVERYONE HAS a date
with disaster,” says Jerry
White, author of I Will Not
Be Broken: 5 Steps to
Overcoming a Life Crisis
(St. Martin’s Press, 2008). In
this book, White, co-founder
of Survivor Corps, an organization that helps victims of
war and terror, has collected
stories from friends and
acquaintances, designed to
help nearly anyone suffering
the aftermath of a life crisis.
Soul survivor
Costco member, organization founder
works to help war victims
Some of the stories are
from, or include, celebrities
such as Lance Armstrong
and the late Princess Diana,
while others are from everyday people who have survived a wide range of
catastrophes. A land-mine
victim himself, White says
that five steps clearly
emerged as he spoke with
people who survived crises
ranging from cancer to serious injury to loss of a loved
one. They are:
By Will Fifield
“THE PEOPLE MOST equipped to make changes into a minefield. The blast sever
that really matter in the world are those who have
been most affected by what’s wrong with it,” says
Jerry White, a longtime Costco member and co-founder of Survivor Corps ( www.survivorcorps.org),
an organization committed to helping victims of
war around the world. He is specifically talking
about the mayhem of armed conflicts, but in a larger
sense, he tells The Connection, he’s speaking of all
human suffering.
“Trauma brings out who we really are—and
who we want to be,” White says. “I guess it’s a crucible. I stepped on a land mine, and this explosive
moment set me in motion, moving me faster toward
who I wanted to be in life. When you almost die, you
know that life is short and you better start now. It
left me with a knowledge that there are no guarantees and not a lot of time left.”
1. Face the facts. “This
Terrible Thing has happened. It can’t be changed
… we must face some brutal
facts of the here and now.”
2. Choose life. “Crisis
and pain can hold us hostage
for a time, but we still have
a choice in how we will
respond to our circumstances,
no matter how dire.”
Organization: Survivor Corps
Year founded: 1997
Founders: Jerry White and
Ken Rutherford
3. Reach out. “No one
survives on their own … one
must find peers, friends and
family to break the isolation.”
H is education on the subject
b egan on April 12, 1984, when
W hite, then 20, was camping with
t wo of his closest friends in Israel,
just north of the Sea of Galilee.
T hey were enjoying a break from
c ollege classes. It was sunny and
b eautiful, the second day of a prog ressive hiking trek. They rose
e arly and, after a quick breakfast,
20037
Through the harrowing process of recovery following his accident, White gradually discovered a
deep desire to help people. It translated into 20-plus
years of working in the nonprofit
social sector. While working as an
analyst for an organization that
tracked weapons of mass destruction, a “light bulb” moment again
changed the course of his life.
His epiphany came when Ken
Rutherford, a friend and also a
land-mine victim, pointed out that
land mines are weapons of mass
destruction in slow motion. White
realized that, with his personal
experience, he was well equipped to
help land-mine victims.
Address: 2100 M St. NW,
Suite 302, Washington, DC
4. Get moving. “Only by
summoning energy and then
stepping into the future will
we find the next best stage
of our lives.”
Maryland ed White’s right foot
and mangled his left leg.
White, 45, is Ivy League educated and lives with
his wife and four children in Maryland, far from the
front lines of any war zone. Despite these social
a dvantages, he is intimately conn ected with the horrors of war
a nd the devastating aftermath of
war-inflicted trauma.
W hite strapped on a heavy back-p ack. Despite the weight of his
p ack, he recalls feeling light that
day, invincible. member
profile
Web site: www.survivor
corps.org
His conversation with Rutherford ultimately led the two men to
establish Survivor Corps in 1997
under the moniker Landmine
The trio cut across a field, Comments about Costco: Survivors Network. The organiza-
Phone: (202) 464-0007
Member at: Beltsville,
5. Give back. “Until we
reach a point where we can
be grateful for our life experience, we are at risk of backsliding into victimhood.”—WF
“Costco has been feeding
eager to tear up the trail. White tion was part of a large movement,
my family and our Survivor
was about 15 yards ahead of his the International Campaign to Ban
Corps team for years.”
companions when a loud thud Landmines, for which White
shattered the joyous scene. The shared the 1997 Nobel Prize for
earth opened up, swallowing him in dirt and rocks. Peace. Through this foundation White hopes to help
As the dust settled, they realized they had wandered victims of war all over the world—80 percent of
