Picking up where Amy left off

Greg Risling

Peter and Linda Biehl are racking up some frequent flyer mileage with all

the traveling they have done in the last year.

The former Newport Beach couple have barely a moment to spare, hopping

from one destination to the next, helping the underprivileged in the name

of their slain daughter.

The couple, who now live La Quinta, have continued their daughter’s

legacy and have shared it with anyone who is willing to listen.

The Biehls will tell their story Sunday at the Orange Coast Unitarian

Universalist Church in Costa Mesa.

Peter and Linda managed to make it home for Thanksgiving after their most

recent journey to Cape Town, South Africa. It was there, just outside the

township, that their 26-year-old daughter, Amy, was ambushed by a mob of

angry black youths.

The Fulbright scholar and Stanford University student was helping people

register to vote in the racially torn country when she was stoned and

stabbed to death. The four men who killed Amy were given amnesty by a

commission last year, a decision the Biehls supported.

When they aren’t in South Africa working on their daughter’s unfulfilled

goals, they have a long list of speaking engagements.

They have been featured guests at various universities, such as Stanford

and Georgetown, and even high schools. At one private college in Oregon,

they raised enough money over a three-day period to build 70 soccer

fields in South Africa. The power of the word is paying off for those Amy

was trying to help.

“Telling stories is a very good way not only to achieve social change but

to remember a person who was close to us,” Peter said. “It’s amazingly

cathartic to talk about Amy and what she did. There is always a person

who walks away with something when they hear her story.”

Peter added they are doing what any good parent would do if they lost a

child in a tragedy. Through the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, the couple

have established a multifaceted organization that has blossomed into a

social staple in South Africa.

Besides creating a multitude of violence-prevention programs, the

foundation has been able to feed the hungry. With help from South Africa,

the Biehls have started their own bakery, which produced “Hope and Peace”

bread. Not only does it feed the poor, it places 25 cents in the pockets

of the people who deliver the baked goods.

“It’s a fairly large business now,” Peter said. “Bread is a basic part of

the diet and has been the food for the masses. The proceeds from the

bakery go back to the violence prevention program.”

The Biehls will make one more trip back to Cape Town before spending

their Christmas with their three children. Then, it’s back to work. But

it’s work the couple embraces.

“It’s such an active and vibrant foundation,” Peter added. “We are doing

so many things and they are helping so many people. That is the most

rewarding aspect.”

FYI

The Biehls will tell their story Sunday at Orange Coast Unitarian

Universalist Church in Costa Mesa. The church is at 1259 Victoria Street.

For more information, call (949) 646-4652.