Family and friends (& friends of friends & so on),

Our dear cousin, Alwin Tremaine, just turned 44 in a South Carolina prison, but he is preparing to start a new life soon! Tremaine has been incarcerated since he was 19, one long sentence for a nonviolent crime related to breaking into the empty home of a powerful person. At the end of his sentence, this July, he will have spent 25 years in prison, more years inside than he's lived outside and free in the world.

Through more than 15 years of back and forth letters, (and books sent and photographs) I've watched Tremaine strive to make peace with the past, ache for another chance, and manage to imagine a positive future. To this end, he's participated in job training (working with sweet dogs), graduated from the JUMP START program, and completed several semesters of college with an almost perfect GPA. To this end, he's read books, written essays, worried and prayed. During this time, he has lost his mother, his maternal grandmother and grandfather, and many other people and things, and yet he continues to dream of the future.

While Tremaine has been supported by a core group of dedicated family members, he will still leave prison with no savings account, no nest egg, no resume. And so, I know it will help him (and those closest to him), if he has some resources to start this new life, which has the promise of good in it. That's why I've started this ambitious fundraiser for him, with a goal of 44X100 dollars. Whatever amount we raise-- 400 or 4,000-- it will all be gifted to Tremaine at his release to help with food, housing, clothing, and anything else he needs to start again.

I hope you consider a donation of any amount: No donation is too small. All of it matters. I know it is a leap of faith to invest in other people. It is by grace that we care.

Thank you for reading, for caring.

Feel free to repost and share!

-Jocelyn