It's been two years since Kimberly Booker lost her son in an accident, and the pain is still evident.
"The loss of a child is unnatural, and it does hurt, but this is the healing," Booker said. "And it's all that we know how to do."
Kimberly Booker held a memorial June 13, two days before the second anniversary of the death of her 12-year-old son, Alexander. The memorial at John Hanson French Immersion and Montessori School in Oxon Hill, where Alexander Booker attended school, brought a small group of family, friends and local community leaders together to remember him and remind everyone of the work still being done in honor of his death.
Two years ago, on June 15, 2007, Alexander Booker and three friends found their way onto the construction site at National Harbor. When one of the boys started an ATV, Alexander Booker got in the back for a ride. The ATV flipped while the boys drove up a hill, killing Alexander. For Booker, who was laid off from her job after her son's death, healing from the loss so far has meant quitting her job, starting a nonprofit organization named after Alexander Booker and championing a cause that could have saved her own son's life.
The next step is taking her case before Congress.
Booker is working with U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D- Dist. 4) of Fort Washington to write the Alexander Lance Booker Construction Site Child Protection Safety Act of 2009, legislation that would enhance the safety guidelines required of developers in construction zones.
The law would require more secure fences to keep out trespassers, warning signs more easily understood by children and better locks and alarms on construction machinery, Booker said.
Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Dist. 26) of Fort Washington, who attended the memorial ceremony, said he plans to mirror Edwards' legislation in the Maryland General Assembly.
"It made us legislators focus on what constitutes a safe area, when you have children the age of 10 and 11, and [construction] is right in their neighborhood," Muse said.
Booker is working on the legislation's final draft and hopes that Edwards will be able to submit it in the coming weeks.
Edwards' office declined to comment on details of the legislation but confirmed they are working with Booker and are preparing to submit the legislation, according to Dan Weber, communications director.
National Harbor officials did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation.
As founder of the Alexander Lance Booker Child Safety Foundation, Booker has helped raise $70,000 to send children to summer camps in Virginia and fund scholarships for youths in families who have fallen on hard economic times.
The foundation has also partnered with the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation to aid the Xtreme Teens Safe Summer initiative, a program that provides evening activities at the county's community centers through Aug. 22 to keep kids off the streets at night.
Booker has organized a safety program that she will present at participating locations throughout the summer that will instruct participants on basic safety issues in their communities.
These causes all share the common goal of giving children guided and supervised activity in the summer months, when hours of free time for curious children can lead to accidents such as Alexander's, Booker said.
On Saturday, Kimberly Booker addressed the small crowd as she released balloons into the sky in her son's memory.
"There's so much that this foundation is doing in Alexander's name," Kimberly Booker said. "I would say that even though we can probably count the heads that are here, there are hundreds and hundreds of children that have been touched by Alexander's memory alone."
Correction: This story incorrectly stated Alexander Booker's middle name in the title of proposed legislation and the foundation created in his name. The legislation is the Alexander Lance Booker Construction Site Child Protection Safety Act of 2009, and the foundation is the Alexander Lance Booker Child Safety Foundation. The story also should have stated that Kimberly Booker was laid off from her job after her son’s death.
