Did you know our founder and executive director, Jane Collins, is also an Air Force veteran? She served from 1981 – 2009 as an active duty and reservist, and was also attached to an Air National Guard unit in Springfield, Ohio. Talk about total force! Jane retired at the rank of colonel and continued serving in her post-Air Force life. Listen as Gwen Tolbart of DC Fox 5 interviews her about the importance of sharing stories as part of the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s Stories: The Veterans History Project. This is the largest oral history project in U. S. History.
“We are extremely grateful for Heard’s continued outreach and engagement with those in our custody.”
— Sheriff Dana Lawhorne
And we are grateful to the Alexandria Gazette Packet for promoting the winners of our writing contest with the Alexandria Adult Detention Center. You are always so supportive of our work! Btw, did you know that you made Mr. Pixley and Mr. Talbert’s day? They were each given a copy of your article and were sooooo happy! Thank you for allowing them to be heard! Scroll down to page 7 to see our winners or read it here:
In his award-winning poem “I Cry”, Anthony Talbert laments over being incarcerated in the Alexandria Jail.
“Growing up I was told that the eyes are the windows to the soul,” reads Talbert’s poem. “So I cry to cleanse my soul of all the torment it holds.”
You can’t not be moved by Talbert’s first-place poem and the tears he sheds for everyone – you, me, Jesus, himself. You can read his entire work and more about our writing contest in Alxnow.com
“We are extremely grateful for Heard’s continued outreach and engagement with those in our custody,” Sheriff Lawhorne said.
And we are grateful to you, Sheriff Lawhorne, for inviting us back to hold our annual writing contest with the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center again. Once again we laughed, cried, and were generally blown away by the honesty and courage of our authors. Congratulations to your winners, and a special shoutout to Caudron Megary, Blackburn Wealth Management Group for sponsoring this event.
The list of winners and a link to the first-place winning poem (and it’s amazing!) is here.
It’s been super busy lately so we were really happy to be able to send our newsletter out to our subscribers. What? You didn’t know you could do that? Well please let us fix that for you. Click, complete, DONE! Now that our newsletter will be sent directly to your inbox, you can relax and read our July newsletter at your leisure. Enjoy that art and all that we have accomplished with your help! If you want to click on a link (and we hope you do) to see where it leads you, try this. Happy reading and as always, thank you for your support!
We’re never afraid to try new things, and with that in mind, we are bravely entering the Spring2ACTion fundraising contest that runs from April 14 – 28! Sponsored by our community foundation, ACT for Alexandria, Spring2ACTion is an online fundraising event open to any local nonprofit. We’re jumping in with both feet and hope you will support us! To access the links in our newsletter, click here. Better yet, why don’t you sign up to have our newsletter sent directly to your inbox?
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