Dear Friends of The Sunny Center,
Many of us think of Thanksgiving as the holiday of sharing and generosity. We gather with friends and loved ones, share our bounty and offer our gratitude. But there is a new observance that could embody even more generosity and expressions of sharing and that is one of our newest and most welcome traditions – Giving Tuesday. The concept might have sprung from the celebration of American Thanksgiving but it has spread around the world as a global day of giving. Buoyed by the power of social media and the spirit of giving as we head into the upcoming holiday season, it is a powerful force for good.
We are, therefore, reaching out to all our friends and supporters in the US and around the world to connect on the Giving Tuesday which is tomorrow! And we would invite you all to remember us on this most generous day of all days. Please consider this Giving Tuesday with the gift that keeps on giving – a recurring donation! Any amount will be the financial foundation upon which the Sunny Center rests, secure in the knowledge that we have that ongoing support. Even a monthly donation of as little as $5 per month will help us continue to provide the help and healing to exonerees all over the world.
OUR EXONEREE GUESTS AND VISITORS
At a time of thanks, we are so grateful to be part of a global network of exonerees. Just this past month at the European Innocence Network Conference in Amsterdam, we reconnected with our former exoneree guest Ina. We were thrilled to see her smiling and thriving. And our reunion with Ina reminded us of all the exonerees we have connected with over the years, many of whom we have personally hosted in our home. It is our deepest wish that our own experience overcoming the trauma and pain of a wrongful conviction can offer hope to others who have suffered a similar tragedy. We look forward to all the other exonerees who will cross our threshold and be welcomed in.
OUR VOLUNTEERS
We are always grateful for our financial supporters and their profound generosity. But one of the things we are equally as thankful for is the corps of volunteers that keep the Sunny Center running smoothly and efficiently. We, very simply, couldn’t do this work without them. This year, we have added a volunteer attorney Daniela, but we’ve also had an army of volunteers who helped us pack up and move quarters to the new home of the Sunny Center. They helped us box, clean, organize, transplant and resettle our animal friends. And sometimes our volunteers volunteer to recruit other volunteers, like this month when our volunteerTess found another volunteer to help us with some Excel sheets. We want to recognize their sizeable contributions to supporting the Sunny Center mission.
OUR FURRY AND FEATHERED FRIENDS
Whenever an exoneree guest arrives, it’s a delight to watch the relationships that grow between the guest and our family of furry and feathered friends. Sometimes they bond with one of the dogs, or one of the cats, or even one of the chickens. And the healing power in that cannot be overstated. Our furry and feathered friends are therapeutic for us and therapeutic for our guests and visitors. It is a powerful way to ground us to nature and to our most elemental selves. And for that, we offer our profound gratitude.
OUR ACTIVISM
In the past month, we attended the European Innocence Network Conference in Amsterdam, attended by more than a dozen innocence organizations including Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Malta, Spain, Britain, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany as well as China, Israel and projects in the US. Those in attendance met to devise plans to make a case to the United Nations that victims of wrongful convictions should be recognized as victims of torture and accorded the correspondent rights and responses, accordingly. It is heartening indeed to see that in four short years the European Innocence Network has grown so substantially and continues to evolve and thrive. As part of our activism this month, Sunny was also featured on the Human Rights TV Channel as part of the International Observatory of Human Rights. You can find her interview here. https://observatoryihr.org/iohr-tv/sunny-jacobs-on-life-after-death-row/
STAY CONNECTED
Happy Giving Tuesday!
And stay in touch. We love hearing from you.
Peace and Love,
Sunny and Peter