what's new with change the truth?

Change the Truth is going strong. Exciting things are just around the corner.

First up: the show at Leopold. The exhibition announcements have been mailed; I will deliver the framed work on Monday. Paul has been quite busy in the public relations department! He has lined up a gig for me on the local NPR show “Up to Date” with Steve Kraske, as well as an in depth article about my work by Jim Fussell scheduled to run in the FYI section of the Kansas City Star. There also seems to be some interest on the part of one of the local television stations to do a piece on the Uganda work and the formation of the Change the Truth foundation. The children in the African dance corps and African drumming group at Operation Breakthrough are busy practicing for their performance at the opening, April 27th. It’s going to be an exciting week leading up to the opening, and I am really looking forward to it all.

Next: on April 29th, “J-Serve” will occur. This is a program organized by local Jewish youth to celebrate and emphasize the importance of community service. The high school kids who are organizing the daylong event have selected Invisible Children and Change the Truth as the non-for-profit groups they want to champion. I will speak at the rally, show photos and video and explain to the 200 young attendees how they can easily get involved in doing volunteer work and how fulfilling it can be. I feel truly honored to have been chosen by this group, and I am happy that they feel it is important to spread the word about what we, specifically, are doing to help others. The proceeds that are raised during the festival will be split between Invisible Children and Change the Truth. There will be all sorts of booths, including one staffed by yours truly, at which I will show photos, sell the beaded jewelry made by the children at the orphanage, sell CDs of the children singing, pass out our beautiful new brochures and talk further with those who are interested in learning more about how I got started doing this kind of work.

And finally, I wanted to share a lovely email I received from a woman named Gisa in Los Angeles. She runs the Butterfly Garden Preschool and spent a couple of months helping the children there learn all about animals that live in Africa. This led to a study of chimps, specifically orphaned chimps, which led to Anna from my Ugandan workshop being invited to teach the children about the chimps at the Jane Goodall Foundation which then led to Anna talking about my work with orphaned children which led to an enthusiastic response from the kids who immediately wanted to do something helpful to a yard sale to raise money!

“the children looked through their toys, books, clothes to find items to sell at the yard sale. parents and friends did the same. each family signed up for a time slot to come help out. the children were in charge of the cash register and putting items into the bags for customers. parents helped organize items and helped customers with any questions.

my preschool has a total of 17 children ranging from ages 2.5-5. they are a diverse group of children and families. it really took their enthusiasm as well as the support from parents to pull this off. we made a whole lot more than we had expected. we sent $150 to the chimps, $150 to a special ed school in kampala and $150 to change the truth.

i currently have two children enrolled who have been adopted from guatemala. i think what you are doing for saint mary kevin orphanage is wonderful. i am so thankful that the garage sale was a success and the we were able to give to three amazing organizations.”

All of this still just takes my breath away. I am amazed and so appreciative.