AGAWAM – Five years after learning about sex trafficking in the U.S., Agawam resident Mary Ann Dietschler is working to give back to organizations that educate about and help victims of the sex trafficking industry.

Dietschler said her journey began by reading a historical book about the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. “I read one atrocity after another, and chances are I would have done nothing because it wouldn’t have affected me,” she explained.

This notion, however, stuck with her. “That thought was always with me, it was kinda nagging me,” she told Reminder Publishing. “Then I heard about a new underground railroad with modern day abolitionists that were freeing children from sex slavery.”

She said that as both a mother and a grandmother, learning about the sex trafficking industry “broke my heart.” While she wanted to help, she realized she was “way beyond the point of going out on a rescue mission,” and while she started to support organizations financially, she said it “didn’t seem like that was enough.”

Inspiration struck one day, though, when she “saw a wreath in a catalog that was $300.” After attempting to duplicate it, Dietschler said she was impressed at her own work and decided to start selling them.

She explained she began selling her creations, “one wreath at a time.” After her daughter convinced her to set up a Facebook page, she said “before you know it, orders started coming in.”

After five years, her operation,?Wreaths With A Reason, has grown and she has five volunteers who give up their time, money and space to make the wreaths. Dietschler said over the years, she has been able to send about $66,000 to various organizations “that help rescue and rehabilitate women and children.”

Dietschler explained that for a while she was only sending money to Operation Underground Railroad, but when she reached the $50,000 mark she began contributing to regional organizations.

“So we support Amirah and we also support the [The] Underground CT, and they do an awful lot regarding awareness,” she explained. “People don’t realize traffic is happening right here, right under their noses. People think here in this country, in this state, in my town?”

One way the company is able to donate all of their proceeds is by keeping their costs low. This is done, in part, by volunteers meeting weekly to make wreaths made of silk flowers that are bought on sale, in tag sales or donated.

She emphasized that while the flowers are made of silk, they still look real and still look great. She said, “We did an arrangement with succulents and this woman bought it to give as a gift and the lady [who ended up with it] tried to water it.”

She explained silk flowers are used because “people want things to last.” It’s not just people in Western Mass. that are buying wreaths, though. “One [wreath] we shipped to North Carolina. We will ship for $20,” she explained. “We’ve had people in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas that we’ve shipped wreaths to.”

Dietschler attributes social media for part of the success of her business. “It’s the wonders of social media, before I know it I’m getting a call,” she said.           

Wreaths can be ordered online at https://wreathswithareason.com or on their Facebook page. Volunteers make new wreaths each Monday, Dietschler said.

“We have one-of-a-kind pieces and sometimes when we have something really popular we’ll make more, but they’re never identical,” she said.