“We change, we become better, we care about our communities, we care about our families, and we want people to know these things,” says David Dawud Lee, a founding member of the Lifeline Association. Image credit: Dustin Fenstermacher
‘Something I Could Hold Onto’
For one month each summer, roughly 60 middle-school students around Mount Carmel, Pa., descend on the campus of Bucknell University to attend the Kaupas Camp. At the free day camp, organized by the local school district, Bucknell coaches run clinics in basketball, field hockey, and other sports. Campers can learn, for example, about ecology or how to play the drums. For some, it’s the first time they’ve set foot on a college campus. These opportunities are provided in large part by philanthropists who are serving long-term sentences at a nearby medium-security prison.
At the State Correctional Institute — Coal Township, about 250 men participate in the Lifeline Association, a giving circle that contributes to charities in the surrounding Pennsylvania coal region. Many of its members are incarcerated for life; the rest will have spent at least 10 years in prison by the end of their sentences.
The men in Lifeline were drawn to the camp’s mission to connect local kids with a range of extracurricular activities in hopes that they’ll discover a new passion to pursue during the school year.
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