Jaycee Dugard in DVF Awards Honor
Jaycee Dugard, along with a number of other notable women, was honored over the weekend at the United Nations in New York for Diane von Furstenberg's DVF Awards ceremony.
It was the first time that Dugard had made an appearance publically since she was rescued from her abductors in 2009.
Dugard received the Inspiration Award for her JAYC Foundation, which was created to help families who are "recovering from abduction and the aftermath of other traumatic experiences."
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When Dugard took to the stage to receive her award she told the crowd: "My name is Jaycee Dugard and I want to say that, because for a long time I wasn't able to say my name and so it feels good. I am truly honored to be here tonight with these amazing women who have done and been through so much more than me," according to People magazine.
Dugard, 31, was abducted at age 11 from a bus stop near her South Lake Tahoe home. She was rescued 18 years later along with her daughters, from her kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido.
Dugard, while she was accepting her award spoke about her JAYC Foundation: "My hope is to be remembered for what I do and not for what happened to me."
Oprah Winfrey was also honored during the awards. She received the lifetime achievement award.
Winfrey turned her attention to Dugard and to offer her support: "I am so proud of you. You are using your courage and your strength and your power to show the world that you care."
"She is the most formidable person I have ever met in my life. What is extraordinary about Oprah is that she has done so much and yet she is still a little girl. She is still very pure and you can make her cry and laugh so quickly," von Furstenberg's said.
