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March 2018 Newsletter

Mar 20, 2018 | Uncategorized

Dear Friends of The Sunny Center,

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We wish great blessings and good fortune to all from our cozy corner in Connemara. In spite of a surprise snow, Spring is coming to life here, so it is a time when we give rise to hopes of rebirth and renewal. Let us all have hope for Peace and Joy in the world.
 
At the age of 16, St. Patrick was captured in Roman Britain by a group of Irish pirates and brought back to Ireland as a slave, unjustly imprisoned. Even after his escape, there’s evidence that he was unfairly persecuted and unjustly charged with criminal offenses. 
 
We hope that people will consider honoring St. Patrick’s Day with a gift to the Sunny Center. Every donation counts, especially at the moment as our bank account is dangerously low. We thank you in advance for your care, compassion and generosity!
 
We are fortunate to have so many friends and supporters around the world. We are very grateful for your help because, otherwise, we couldn’t do the work we do to help Exonerees find help, healing and transition to a fulfilling life. 

OUR GUESTS AND VISITORS

Liza, our visitor from Sweden enjoys the Connemara landscape.

We had a visitor from Sweden who enjoyed taking walks with the dogs, roaming the Irish countryside and chats by the fire. 
 
We also hosted visitors who have been struggling with their sense of well being and, hopefully, offered them a bit of respite care. 
 
We provide ongoing support to exonerees by phone or Skype. It is very much a challenge for exonerees to manage their transition to freedom, especially in the face of family or societal demands. There is a strange inequity in the system that excludes exonerees from receiving the same benefits as any other prisoners when they are released. This is something we are working to change.

OUR VOLUNTEERS ​

Tress meditating with one of our pups.

We bid farewell to our lovely volunteer Tress, but she has promised to return this summer to help out for an extended stay. We look forward to her cheery disposition and can do attitude. She has been a lovely addition to the Sunny Center family. Barney says meditation is not the same without her!

OUR FURRY AND FEATHERED FRIENDS ​

​The goats explore snow-covered terrain. 

Thanks to the so-called Beast from the East, the artic blast from Siberia, the goats got a chance to roam the hillsides through fields of snow, something none of them had experienced before. 

OUR ACTIVISM ​

Sunny and Peter help train lawyers working for Amicus to stop death penalty cases in the US.
 
We went to London and appeared on the Jo Good radio show on BBC UK. We also helped train lawyers to work on death penalty cases in the US for Amicus.
 
We are campaigning for Exonerees to have the same rights to services as other people who are released from prison. This will have to be done state-by-state. If you have any influence in this area, please let us know!

​

Here’s a little video of Sunny giving a talk in a prison in Ireland where the death-penalty used to be carried out. Is now a tourist attraction.

STAY CONNECTED ​

We want you to know how important you all are to us. It’s through your continued support that we are able to host a visit at the Sunny Center for those who have suffered injustice, send money to an exoneree to cover his phone bill and arrange for an on-the-ground support person to meet with exonerees and help them get their lives on track. Meeting the needs of those who have experienced such profound loss is incredibly important and so are all of you who donate so that we can heal those who have been hurt so much by injustice. 

From our home to yours, we send healing thoughts of love and hope!!! 
Peace and Love,

Sunny and Peter 

Remembering Peter

My dear Peter is gone.
We sang him home on the last day of the year, gathered around his bedside as we had done for so many days before.

‘Send them green.’ A special message from a Sunny Center supporter!

“I had the wonderful opportunity to be a guest at the Sunny Center this past July. My first trip to Ireland, it always is a magical moment to visit friends who live overseas…”

Exonerees are succeeding, thanks to you!

Helping people exonerated of crimes they did not commit, setting them back on the path to a fulfilling life, is a monumental task that we depend on the dedication of volunteers, both near and far, to achieve.

Even in summer, the work doesn’t stop

We’re in midsummer now, with its long days that stretch until 11 in the evening here in Ireland. It’s a busy time for everyone and everything.

The power of art to heal and renew

Did you know that Peter was a woodworker and an artist? He created so many things. But more importantly, he taught those skills to other Exonerees when they visited the Center.

Looking for green shoots

Photo by Samantha Bookman. Peter and I chose to situate the Sunny Healing Center here in this beautiful location in the west of Ireland. A newcomer may at first see only a barren, rocky, windswept landscape. But, put your hand on the earth here, and you can feel the...

A message from Sunny about Peter

The time has come to say farewell to our dear Peter, who is in the process of transitioning from this body and this plane.

Finding Peace, Joy and Hope

The events in Ukraine over the past several days have been ever-present in all of our lives through the daily news and constant social media. These times can be especially difficult for Exonerees because of the traumas they are working to overcome.

Love Is Always the Answer

Winter is always a little bit quieter than the rest of the year. After a long day spent maintaining the Sunny Healing Center and getting it ready for visitors, it’s time for us to cuddle up with the kittens and, of course, Barney, on chilly winter evenings with a warm fire in the hearth.

A Happy, Healthy and Healing New Year to All

Love has no barriers and no limits. And neither does our gratitude for your continuing support and friendship. Know that you are never alone, because you are part of our family.

Happy Holidays to Our Friends Near and Far!

These are extraordinary times. And you’ve all been extraordinary supporters. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to keep helping Exonerees in the midst of a global emergency.