True stories of everyday people
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Lou Ann Homan
All that her three little boys wished for Christmas was a pony. But in order to raise the $75 dollars to pay for it their homesteading mother would have to bake THIRTY PUMPKIN PIES for Thanksgiving … with no electricity, no running water and a wood burning stove! This...
Elizabeth Jeanne Brandt
In an excerpt of her oral history of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s Spiritual Life Center the director, Elizabeth Brandt, tells about her love of labyrinths. How did the center come to have three labyrinths for meditative walking? Elizabeth tells the story.
James Edward Lindgren
James Lindgren tells about how branches of the family in Sweden and the U.S.A. were separated by a falling out between a grandfather and his brother. Years later, after researching family history, the grandchildren reunited in peaceful correspondence and travel.
Bryan Hudson
Tired of negative media content in 2000, Bryan Hudson used a Lilly Endowment Grant to establish a Media Camp so that African Americans and other young people could benefit from positive mentoring and learn to be media producers.
Gwendolyn Julia (Judy) Kelley
Gwendolyn Kelley tells about seeing the change in Indianapolis during the civil rights movement and the legacy of her poem about Martin Luther King Jr., “The Dream In You.”
Venita Jean Moore
After attending Historically Black Colleges, earning a CPA, working for Governor Bayh, and founding her own CPA firm Venita was called upon to run for IPS Commissioner. Her grown daughter said, “Why not?”
JoEllen Florio-Rossebo
JoEllen reflects on the home of her early childhood where her Italian Grandparents created a beautiful, safe garden close to the heart of Chicago.
Ruth Esther Shaw
What can happen when a community asks, “What can we do to change it?” Community activist Ruth Shaw tells about her efforts in making a Quality of Life Plan that lead to the Super Bowl!
Marcia Louise Baker
Commuting from Tallahassee, Florida to Pelham, Georgia, Marcia Baker taught in an all boys school in the early 1970’s. She tells about bringing a new cassette recorder and tough love to her classroom of underprivileged children.