Reunion Online

Last year, a FedEx delivery truck arrived at the Detroit Police Department storage facility to pick up the first batch of untested rape kits bound, finally, for crime labs. Thus began Detroit’s massive task of processing its rape kit backlog – the more than 11,000 kits that were left behind to languish in a police warehouse, some for more than two decades.

When 18-year-old Ella Burnside—event chair and champion of a cause shared by women everywhere—took the podium at Taking on Goliath October 20, she answered the question on everyone’s minds: No. She is not a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse. How this fierce young dynamo came to embody the biblical David slaying the giant began, of all places, in a classroom!

Psychics told the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star that the second half of her life would be much better than the first. Today, with a supercharged career and a long-desired second child, she's on a whole new journey.

It’s one thing to say you’re going to do something, it’s another to actually do it. That’s the lesson Ella Burnside took from her English class at Christian Academy and one she’s become an example of through her work with Taking on Goliath, a fundraiser for the Joyful Heart Foundation.

Taking on Goliath is a dinner and silent auction benefiting The Joyful Heart Foundation that will take place on October 20, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at The Olmstead here in Louisville. The emcee for the evening is Wave 3’s Scott Reynolds. Entertainment for the night will be provided by live band; Danny Flanigan and The Rain Chorus.

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is back from its summer break, but it’s not the same old show it once was. Leading man Christopher Meloni, who played Det. Elliot Stabler for over a decade, is out, as is actor B.D. Wong, and several new faces have joined the drama. Still, one thing hasn’t changed — Mariska Hargitay is bringing Olivia Benson to the squad room, even though she's lost her on-screen partner.

The Law & Order: SVU star speaks out about the rights of rape victims and what she's learned from Olivia Benson.

On Wednesday's episode of Law & Order: SVU, Jennifer Love Hewitt guest-stars as Vicki, a woman who has been repeatedly raped by the same man for more than a decade.

The season premiere of NBC's "Law and Order SVU" tackled the ongoing problem of backlogged rape kits sitting untested in police warehouses... delaying the prosecution of rape suspects. It was a problem brought to life in Los Angeles in 2009 and now actress Mariska Hargitay has started a foundation to help raise awareness and funds to get those rape kits tested.

It took years. It almost broke her heart. Here, for the first time, Mariska Hargitay shares the tender story of how she adopted her two precious new kids.