<div>For the past 18 months, I have met weekly with a group of inmates at the Santa Barbara County Jail, joining them at a small stainless steel table bolted to the floor at the end of rows of bunk beds. The men of cell block East-23 and I spend about an hour and half each Friday talking about a book we have chosen to read together and any writing, based on questions I have raised for them in advance, that they may have done with the small golf pencils they are allowed. The time is among the highlights of my week. And their gratitude for the books and writing supplies - pencils, composition books and graph paper, Post-it Notes - is evident during every session.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>You have helped pay for this.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The group started with a simple idea: A book and writing club that would function just as these clubs do outside prison walls. The county sheriff thought the idea was good enough to approve a “non-escort badge” for me, meaning I can go into the cell blocks without a guard, saving staff time and putting the men more at ease. We have chosen more than 40 books together, works by Alice McDermott and Zora Neale Hurston, Ernest Hemingway and James Baldwin, Tim O’Brien and Michael Herr and David Finkel, S.E. Hinton and Stephen Graham Jones, Ken Kesey and Mary Shelley, a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, an account of Shackleton’s doomed and triumphant voyage on the Endurance, classics and current best-sellers, fantasy and journalism. We’re reading Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” now.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We’ve also gone beyond the initial plan. After the first few meetings, I decided to expand the original scope to make sure the men participating found something each week they liked to read, not just our common book. I made a deal with them: Pick a book you want to read and I’ll get it for you. In return, you have to review it for us, orally or in writing. Should we read it? Did you like it, if so, why? This has proven to be a lot of fun and I believe has helped develop an interest in reading and writing that will extend beyond their terms of incarceration (and vastly widened my own reading interests.)
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>But the expansion has increased the burn rate of the money I raised in 2022 to fund this project. So I’m asking you here to support a new round of funding to keep this going. Yes, there is a “who’s saving whom” element to this project, which makes it personal to me. But I believe it has brought some joy to dozens of men who have participated in the group and a lasting sense of the magic found in great writing, whether read or written by the men themselves. If you feel as if you can afford to make a donation, thank you very much in advance. I think it matters to them - and certainly to me. 
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>First appeal: October 2022
</div>
<div>My name is Scott Wilson. I have been a professional journalist for three decades, inspired initially by the books, essays, poems and plays I read when I was young. I have lived in many parts of the world, covered wars and presidents, wildfires and earthquakes on several continents, homelessness, mass shootings and justice reform in this country. I want to share what I have learned with a segment of our society that has few opportunities to deepen its education - the incarcerated. I have started a program where each week at the Santa Barbara County Jail, in cellblock E-23, I meet with roughly 15 incarcerated men. We begin by sharing a quote from literature, then reading from their journals based on a question from our last assigned reading, then picking as a group what we intend to read for our next session. I volunteer my time, obviously, and so far have paid for the books myself. But this is unsustainable in the long run. The jail provides composition books and pencils. My goal is to raise $5,000 a year to pay for books - and only books - for the inmates. I believe it is important for them to each have their own copies to mark up, take notes in, etc - and to give them a greater sense of ownership of what we are trying to achieve. The goal is to improve writing skills, to read great literature (new and old) together, and to foster a lifelong love of reading and writing that will carry over and inspire far beyond their time behind bars. Many have expressed an interest in writing their own stories one day. We also plan to grow the program in the months ahead to include more inmates. To reiterate: Any donation will go SOLELY toward the purchase of books. Thank you very much for your consideration and for any donation you may be able to spare. My warmest regards, Scott
</div>

donna j wagner

Anonymous

Nina Jo Smith

David Quigley

Marianne Gordin

Caroline Casey

Margaret Spencer

A Reading and Writing Group for Inmates

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

be_supporter_comments_enabled_supported_funds

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

A Reading and Writing Group for Inmates

Still $6,268 to go. Help us build momentum.