Dear Friends of The Sunny Center,
It is coming up on St. Patrick’s Day – the one day of the year when everyone is just a little bit Irish! But it’s also the one day that we honor St. Patrick himself, who at the very young age of 16, was captured in Roman Britain by a group of Irish pirates and brought back to Ireland as a slave, unjustly imprisoned. He, like so many of the exonerees with whom we work, was unfairly persecuted and unfairly charged with criminal offenses.
So on this special day, it is our deep hope that you might 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!
So Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We wish you all the blessings and good wishes associated with the day!!!
OUR EXONEREE GUESTS AND VISITORS
The Exonerees for Exonerees community in Florida is thriving and filled to capacity after our newest resident was referred by attorneys. We are now accepting candidates for our waitlist so please contact us here.
OUR VOLUNTEERS
We are lining up volunteers for the summer – a wonderful time of the year in Connemara. Many of our former volunteers stay in contact with us. Amy is now graduating law school. Katie is working in a law firm and continuing her studies in order to have an impact in the field of human rights. Samantha and Charles are making plans to return to the Sunny Center. And Tress continues to work with us from afar, recruiting new volunteers and planning to return to the Sunny Center for another month of volunteer work. We are very proud of our volunteers and very grateful for their dedication and continued support.
OUR FURRY AND FEATHERED FRIENDS
All our furry and feathered friends missed us while we were gone during our activist trips to Brussels and the UK and were very happy to see us upon our return. They are certainly enjoying the longer stretch of days and the shortening of nights – as are we! Although we very much missed the goats who have been re-homed, we are told that they are enjoying their new life on the Aran island of Inis Mór.
OUR ACTIVISM
This past month we traveled to Brussels to attend the 7th World Congress against the Death Penalty hosted by ECPM. The World Congress against the Death Penalty is an international meeting of abolitionist activists and a forum used to mobilize public opinon against the death penalty and encourage countries to make concrete commitments against it. The World Congress against the Death Penalty is organized by ECPM in partnership with the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and under the sponsorship of Belgium, the European Parliament, Switzerland and the European Union. During our visit to Brussels, we were asked to help set up Sunny Healing Centers in a number of other countries and train people to do the healing work.
We also traveled to the UK where we spent time training new activists against the death penalty for Amicus, a small nonprofit organization based in London that is seeks to end the death penalty worldwide. We gave talks at the University of Manchester, Leicester University, and Reed Smith law firm in London, and were interviewed on the Jo Good BBC Radio show and for an upcoming documentary by a French film crew about the death penalty.
STAY CONNECTED
On St. Patrick’s Day, we wish every one the Irish blessing:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warmly upon your face.
the rains fall softly upon your fields
We hope that on St. Patrick’s Day, and every day, you find the right road to meet you and the sun to greet you. Many blessings to you. As they say in Irish, Slàn agus Beannacht!
In the meantime, we want to thank you for your support, your steady friendship and your gifts of time, money and love.
Peace and Love,
Sunny and Peter