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Bridges to Life Staff

Margarita “Margie” Blazier — Bryan Regional Coordinator — Email

Margie Blazier was born and raised in Brooklyn N.Y., the second of three siblings. The 1960’s Brooklyn neighborhoods were not a safe place for a single mother raising two young daughters and one son alone. Growing up, Margie saw and experienced a lot of injustice in her life. Because of what she herself went through she always felt a desire to help the underdog, and a deep pain for those who were beaten, raped, victimized, and abused in any way. She was too young to join all the causes she kept hearing about that older college kids were involved in and felt that she had somehow missed her calling and her chance to make a difference in the world.

At 19, Margie married and left the neighborhoods she had known in Brooklyn to follow her husband to Texas. It was a wonderful culture shock. She fell in love with the wide open spaces, the horses and cows in the fields, the blue cloudless sky during the day and the deep black night filled with stars everywhere. The smell of freshly cut grass was a wonderful treat for this city girl who always yearned to live in the country. This was the place to raise children, far away from the dangers of the city streets of Brooklyn so she thought.

Several years later she found herself in the middle of an emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive marriage where nothing she did was good enough; the loss of her firstborn son in a school bus accident whom she was blamed for; the eventual loss of her 20 year marriage and the realization that she was losing her second son to drugs, alcohol, and a life of crime.

In 2002 she was asked by her friend, Deborah Hartman, to join her at a Bridges To Life meeting in Austin. Margie finally agreed to go and decided to give in to that small still voice in her heart that kept telling her, “I want you in this”. She thought, “I’ll do one”, but after doing one project, Margie was hooked.

While listening to the victims and offenders stories she found her heart breaking again, like when she was a young child back in Brooklyn. She identified with the victims of crimes pain, loss of power and control, and she identified with those incarcerated because something more insidious than drugs had taken control of their hearts and minds, a loss of self worth, self respect, and dignity. In Bridges To Life Margie finally found and got back the opportunity she thought she’d lost to make a difference in others lives and in her world.

In 2003 after ten years of learning to trust again, Margie married Jerry, a wonderfully loving and caring man who participates in the Bridges To Life/Restoring Peace projects with her and supports her all the way.

Bridges to Life Book

Restoring Peace – Using Lessons From Prison to Mend Broken Relationships details the principles used in the Bridges To Life program, combined with actual stories from victim and inmate participants. The book is intended for repairing or improving relationships with others.

Inmate Comments

“The best part about this program is the small group setting which allows both victim and inmate to be open and honest with one another and the trust, confidence that is built through these groups.”