When 16-year-old Heather Ducharme isn’t busy with school and hanging out with friends in Minnesota, she spends time discussing her faith and values with people around the world.
Ducharme created a discussion group on Facebook, a popular social-networking Web site, called James Dobson, fighter for the family for “those who believe that James Dobson is doing a great job in his ministry and want to support him.”
Ducharme started the group nine months ago and invited a few friends and family members to join. Today, her group has 306 members from around the world and gets nearly five new members a week.
Ducharme spoke to CitizenLink about how Dr. Dobson’s impact throughout her life inspired her to create this group.
1. Why did you decide to create James Dobson, fighter for the family?
It was about a year ago when I got Facebook. I grew up listening to Dr. Dobson’s program, so I was browsing through groups and I decided to search his name. I did and (the groups) were all negative. They were all against him or making fun of him. That kind of bothered me because he had been such a role in my life. My mom had read a lot of his books to us when we were younger, and they had also really helped her. It had never occurred to me that people wouldn’t like him. I know that sounds childish, but growing up, my extended family – everybody – was such a big fan and listening to his programs was a learning time and a stability for me. So I just decided to create a group about him, about what he was doing that was really good for the family.
2. Tell us about the group.
On Facebook, a “group,” is a place where people who share the same views you do can come and join. You have things like discussion boards where you can talk over different things and people get to express their opinions. I wanted people to be able to express their opinions even if they didn’t totally agree with the group. I wanted to be able to maybe explain where I was coming from, and even see if there was any grounds in their accusations.
It’s just a place where I thought people could come and express what Dr. Dobson had done in their life and how he had helped them or how he had influenced them.
3. Many teens don’t seem to care much about political issues. Why did you get involved, and why is it important for teens to get involved, even if they’re too young to vote?
A lot of it is from training at home. My family is very political, so we talk about elections and politics and our leaders. If you’re not involved and you don’t know now (about the issues), it’s hard to get involved later, and you won’t have the interest when you can have a say in what happens.
4. What do your family and friends think about your Facebook group?
They’re very supportive, and they thought it was a really cool idea. They all joined it, all the ones that have Facebook. They were really excited as I started getting members to the group from out of country and all over the country, and people I didn’t know. When I first created the group, I invited a lot my friends that I knew would know who Dr. Dobson was and what he stood for, but after that I started seeing people from Egypt and Iran and Europe and Canada and really all over.
5. If you could send Dr. Dobson a message, what would you say?
I would just thank him for standing strong and being a public figure that doesn’t compromise but stands for what he knows is right, even if it’s not the popular thing to do. Not very many people do that anymore.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you are a member of Facebook, you can join Heather's group – James Dobson, fighter for the family – by clicking here.
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the Family is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
