| 31 January 2010
Posted in News and Updates

Learning New Things…..Meeting New People……

I am a glass half full kind of girl.  I am also not used to the role of victim, so for me, this whole situation with Joy and our family has been unreal.  There is no doubt that it has been horrible for Joy and our family.  However, we have learned a lot over the past 15 months. 

Certainly we have learned about our justice system and about the prison world.  We learned there are services so that you can receive collect calls from prison and that there are very specific rules around what you can send to a prisoner and what you can’t send.  Hard to believe but you can’t send a book from your home library…but you can send one from Amazon.

This weekend, we learned about the structure of web design.  So if you are reading this post, we have successfully shown our competence in setting up a blog!

I would say that the thing I have learned the most about is people.  There are a lot of really good people out there.  People have come out to help, support, and care.  Joy’s friends have moved her belongings, written countless letters to support her and donated thousands of dollars prior to the trial.  For me, the day after the trial I sent an SOS out to my friends and 1 hour later we were building a website and starting a facebook group, TOGETHER!   It was so helpful and so caring.  Did they have groceries to buy and things to do with their families?  I suspect so, but I love them dearly for coming to my aid.

“Justice for Joy”, a coalition of Joy’s friends and family, met on January 21st.   It was truly uplifting.  We started by sharing how we know Joy….supporters and friends from church, nurses who worked with Joy, friends from college, former teachers, family…..there were even people there who know people who know Joy!  Everyone had a Joy story to share…..all came together, coalesced by a common cause….Justice for Joy.   

So while I would never want to relive this experience ever again and I would never wish it on my worst enemy—I am so grateful  for meeting new people, learning new skills and for the love of all of our family, friends and supporters.

At the end of the meeting, one of the pastors read from Romans 1-5.  His words resonated with me as I struggle through this challenge.  I hope that you find strength in this passage…

"We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Now, I want to share some of the discussion from the Justice for Joy meeting held on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010. 

 We know that we have three short term goals. 

• Coordinate the writing of letters in support of Joy to the judge for the sentencing.
• Get the truth out about Joy
• Raise donations toward Joy’s appeal

This is a summary of our short term action plan….

Letters of support:

Instructions on how to write the letter of support can be found on this website.  It is important that the focus is on Joy and that the letter conveys specific information about Joy’s positive attributes.  Please consider writing a letter of support.

Getting the story out:

We will continue to add content to the website.  Everyone will spread the story to their friends and co-workers.   We are leveraging the power of the internet and facebook to get the message out.

We have ordered orange bracelets imprinted with “Justice for Joy”.

Orange is such an appropriate color.  Here is what we know about Orange……

Orange also reminds us that Joy is in prison.  Hopefully the bright and powerful nature of the color of our bracelets will attract attention and bring support.

We are exploring other items that can used to increase awareness such as bumper stickers and other items.

Raise donations for Joy’s appeal:

We know we will need thousands of dollars to support Joy’s appeal.  On this evening alone, we raised $850!!!  Many Many Thanks to everyone for your donations.  All donations are valuable to this effort.  We have added a thermometer to the website and established a money goal.

We would like to thank everyone for your support and action!!  The group will meet again in one month.  Let us know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you are interested in joining the cause.