Her name is Virginia and she is a 15 year old runaway. I met her in the park across the street from my hotel in Minneapolis. I was eating a sandwich and she came over and asked me for a dollar. I gave her my sandwich and a couple of dollars, not enough to buy drugs or booze. She and I talked for quite a while and I found out she is from Detroit, has been gone from home for about 6 months and lives in the park or at a nearby shelter. She said she was continuously raped by her step-father and that her Mom wouldn't do anything about it so she left. My heart went out to this young girl and I urged her to talk to someone at the shelter about finding a place for runaways and try to finish up school. After doing a little research at the hotel, I found her the next day and gave her some numbers to call for help. A young girl of 15 should not be on the street and if she stays on the street she'll soon be a prostitute, hooked on drugs or dead. I'm hoping that she called the numbers I gave her and I did give her a little more money to make the calls. It just broke my heart to see her there alone and in a strange city with no one to trust. I saw her only once after the day I met her. I'm hoping she took my advice.