Comments (16) | Posted in Music by jamie tworkowski

i went for the upside down buildings and the special effects. These things will blow your mind and win awards but they are not the reasons you should go. You should go for the humanity of the film. You should go because you will relate to the people stuck in moments, the people living with ghosts, people trying to get home. You should go to be reminded that our lives are also stories and every good story is about someone fighting a battle and there are no enemies greater than the ones called guilt and regret, pain and shame. The movie serves as a reminder that these enemies unchecked will haunt and hunt you always. Thankfully, the movie also serves as reminder that people need other people, that our stories and our battles and our dreams, these things are meant to be shared. 

i went for what i saw in the previews, fantastic things pushing and falling and exploding around the characters. i left thinking about the things that push and move in me, my ghosts and wars and dreams. The movie suggests that we are most alive and most awake when we are dreaming. And while a case could be made that it is speaking to the dreaming that occurs when we’re asleep, perhaps it’s true or even more true of the dreams we dream awake. 

Inception suggests that there is much at stake; our hearts and our children and the air in our lungs. i am 30 years old. It doesn’t feel old but some days it sounds old when i say or see it. It’s easy to buy into the idea that “dreaming” is a silly word for children, that “battle” means the military and that ghosts are not real. Inception felt like an invitation, a reminder that there might be more to the story, a world we don’t see but one connected to the days we wake to.

There is certainly much at stake. i don’t know your story or your dreams or the things that steal your sleep, but i know they matter. i hope your story is rich with other characters, rich with friends and conversation. i hope you know some people who will carry you and i hope you get to carry them. i hope that there is beauty in your memories and i hope it doesn’t haunt you. And if it does, then i hope there is someone who will talk you through the night and remind you of the promise of the sunrise, that beauty keeps coming, that there are futures worth waiting for and fighting for and that you were made to dream. 

Peace to you tonight.
jamie

Comments (18) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

COME WATCH CHARLIE ST. CLOUD WITH THE TWLOHA TEAM.

We are fans of surprising stories, worlds colliding and things happening in places they would not normally happen. With those things in mind, you are invited to spend the evening of Wednesday, July 28 with the TWLOHA team in Melbourne, Florida. We’re excited to bring you Charlie St. Cloud, the new movie starring Zac Efron, two days before it comes out. Charlie St Cloud speaks to the pain of losing someone you love, the struggle to let go and the miracle of moving forward. Posters for the movie say it well: “Life is for living.” 

Beyond the movie itself, we are excited for this event. Our aim is a unique evening that points to hope, help and community. Movie premieres tend to take place in New York and L.A. We love the idea of bringing a taste of those nights to the place we’re from. i grew up just across the bridge in Melbourne Beach and I’ve been seeing movies at this theater since i was a kid. Beyond our own roots, this is an attempt to celebrate you, to say that you are the star on this night. From 6 - 7:30, there will be photo opportunities, some music and speaking and the chance to meet our team. And just like HEAVY AND LIGHT, we will be highlighting local counseling and treatment resources. Then at 7:30, we will all watch Charlie St. Cloud together. 

Here are the details:

The event is free but space is limited. Reserve your tickets by emailing charlie@twloha.com with the name of each person in your party. An adult must accompany children under 13. Tickets can be picked up the day of the movie. If tickets are not picked up by 7PM, tickets will be given out first come first serve. You will need an ID to pick up tickets.

Premiere Theaters Oaks 10 
1800 W. Hibiscus Blvd. Melbourne, Florida 32901

On behalf of our entire team, we hope to see you soon!!

Peace to you today.
jamie

Comments (17) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

While working with To Write Love on Her Arms I’ve heard some amazing stories. I’ve listened, I’ve shared, and I’ve grown. We say it all the time, “your story is important,” because it is. Your story is one that was written with purpose. It’s still being written. Sometimes we suffer. Sometimes we stumble, we fall, and we can’t see how we can possibly get up. Our hearts break, our world seems to get darker, we feel alone. But through those struggles you learn and you grow. You figure out who you are. Two weeks ago I met an amazing woman on a plane to Cincinnati that helped me see that again.

I woke up at 5am. My alarm went off and I began to slowly get dressed, mumbling under my breath about staying up late and needing more sleep. Whitney, Narika and I were heading to a festival in Pennsylvania and were in for a long day. Airport security lines stretched out into the atrium, children were crying, a whole family even jumped ahead of a line of people who had been waiting for awhile (us included). A crowded tram ride, a long walk to the terminal, and a quick breakfast later I was situated in my seat on the plane.

Because my ticket had been booked after Whitney’s and Narika’s my seat was a few rows ahead of them. I settled into seat 19E, a center seat between a mother of two spunky girls across the aisle and a woman about my mother’s age with a warm smile and a People magazine beside the window, seat 19F.

“You’ve got to let me know if that’s a good read,” I said with a smile, pointing at the front cover of the magazine. “I couldn’t decide if I wanted it or not.” She laughed and offered to let me have it once the flight was over. She wouldn’t need it for her connecting flight because she was certain she’d finish before this flight was through. We chatted for a moment and I learned she was on her way to Montreal to see her mother, though she was living in Florida just down the coast from my sleepy little town of Cocoa.

The plane began to rumble down the runway and I popped in my headphones and attempted to catch a few moments of rest before the long day ahead of me officially began.

The chime signaling that it was time to turn off portable electronic devices pulled me from my drowsy daze. The lady beside me was tapping her arm to the beat of the music in her own headphones as she flipped through her magazine. As I began to put away my iPod she began to do the same.

“So,” she said, almost hesitantly, looking for a conversation, but unsure of my willingness to participate, “why are you going to Cincinnati?” I began to explain to her about To Write Love on Her Arms and our participation in the festival. Her eyes got wide as I talked about the need for conversations to start and for people to know they are not alone, that their stories are important. She told me that she works in education and feels like so many of her students struggle with the same issues I had just mentioned.

“It’s so important,” she said. “I’m glad to have grown up in the 60’s! It was a lot less stressful, though my husband may not agree.” Seeing my confusion she began to tell me about how her husband and his five best friends enlisted in the army together straight out of high school and were deployed to Vietnam. She didn’t say how long it took, but within weeks of each other, each of her husband’s best friends were killed in the war. He was even shot down in a helicopter. “He lives with so much guilt and sadness. He doesn’t understand why he lived and they didn’t!” You could see how much she loved her husband as she spoke about him. Her eyes hurt for him, yet she smiled.

“He’s had a good life! He lived! We got married young. We had three children.” My frustrations from the morning seemed to disappear as I listened to this woman weave her story for me. “I know we’re meant for so much, especially after 9/11. I was in the first tower, you know.”

She went on to tell me about her morning on September 11, 2001, a morning where she decided to leave her desk on the 91st floor because she was hungry. She chatted with co-workers as she made her way to the elevator and ultimately ended up in the concourse below the streets of New York buying breakfast. It was then that the first plane hit, shaking the walls of the tower and causing a great commotion. The plane crashed into the building killing everyone on board as well as many of this woman’s co-workers, the co-workers she had just wished a good morning to. The fear and panic consumed the building and she quickly escaped and watched from six blocks away as the tower fell.

2,995 people died in the attacks on America on September 11, 2001.

2,995 people were lost, their families left behind, their stories ended too soon.

She looked at me with a concrete assurance, “I’m not afraid of anything anymore. I don’t care about death. I faced death. My husband faced death. We’re alive and now it’s about living life and being happy.” Her words seemed to be like cold water rushing through my body. Goosebumps filled my arms and tears came to my eyes. This woman. This beautiful stranger sat beside me with a rare confidence about life. She shouldn’t be alive, but she is. She is! Her heart is beating and her lungs are breathing fresh air and she is alive! She began to describe how she doesn’t take for granted the little things anymore, “a small child’s giggle, a sunrise on the beach, spending time driving around and experiencing new things. Those are the moments you cherish no matter how small.”

I didn’t know that getting onto that plane would change me. I didn’t know that the smiling woman reading a magazine would create a new sense of hope in my life. She revealed truths to me that I had forgotten, truths that rejuvenated me and gave me peace. She had lived, struggled, felt pain and fear. But through those struggles, through that pain, she was given hope. Switchfoot says that every breath is a second chance. This woman embraced that truth. She ran with it. As I got off the plane with her I thanked her for sharing her story with me. I let her know how much it touched me. She just smiled and told me to have a good trip to Pennsylvania and then she was gone, lost in a sea of travelers looking for their connecting flights.To the lady in 19F – thank you so much for sharing your life with me. Thank you for reminding me to embrace life and live. Your story is so important and meaningful.

By: Holly Hallum

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A special note about Holly:

Holly was an intern here with us this past fall. After her internship, she stayed on with us part-time, helping Denny run the UChapters program, working as the Intern RA and investing herself as a member of our community here in Cocoa. We’re excited to share that as of yesterday, Holly joined our team full-time.

Let her know how much her words mean to you, and join us in celebrating her today!

Comments (18) | Posted in General by Kaitlyn Suveg

Counselors Aaron and Michelle Moore have been part of the TWLOHA story since 2006, providing training to TWLOHA staff and interns and teaching at MOVE Community Conferences. They have spoken at HEAVY AND LIGHT the last two years and Aaron often joins Jamie on the road, bringing a counselor's perspective to TWLOHA events on college campuses. 

Comments (0) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

IN LOVING MEMORY: NATE "OTEKA" HENN (1985-2010)

It was early Sunday evening when i first heard about the bombings in Uganda. I saw something from CNN on Twitter and instantly thought of my friends at Invisible Children, because Uganda is the focus of their mission. Members of their team live there and others join them throughout the year. I sent a text to my friend Jason Russell. Jason went to Uganda in 2003, one of three friends with cameras hoping to find a story. The story they would find would make it's way to people all over the world. What began as a DVD is now a global movement and a charity working to end the world’s longest running war. 

When I sent the text, I hoped that I was only talking about a place. It was Uganda and so Jason needed to know. A place was bombed, a place my friends know as home even from across the miles. But the place was not the thing that caused the weight. It was the possibility of people. What if this bomb took people? What if it took a friend from my friends?

I woke up yesterday to the awful news that the bombings in Uganda had taken the lives of 74 people and one among them was Nate "Oteka" Henn, a member of the Invisible Children team. Nate was an American living in Uganda. He had fallen in love with the mission of IC, devoting his life to the possibility of peace, volunteering without pay for over a year. 

We have many friends at Invisible Children. We believe deeply in who they are and what they do. Our friends at IC are hurting right now. Nate's friends and family and the people of Uganda are hurting right now. We take this moment to say that they are not alone, that Nate's life mattered, that his story was important and will not be forgotten. 

We hope you'll take a moment to learn more about Nate. He lived in a way that placed others above himself. With that, his life became a gift to many. His family has established the Nate Henn Memorial Fund so that other young people can experience the life Nate lived as a Roadie for Invisible Children. TWLOHA is proud to announce a donation of $1500 to the fund.

TWLOHA exists to invite people to fight for their stories, to move beyond their pain by stepping into hope, help and community.We believe that every life matters. Every life in Uganda, every life in America, every life everywhere. When one suffers, we all suffer. Nate was in Uganda living a picture of this, trying to ease the suffering of others, injecting dignity where it had been lost, waking each day to place his hands against the wounds of a broken world, to try to stop the bleeding.  

It seems Nate knew the thing that some never learn, that we are part of a bigger story, that our lives are gifts to give. May we walk the road he showed us and may we see him on the other side.

In Loving Memory: Nate "Oteka" Henn 

Peace to you today.
jamie

Comments (6) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

Kristin Brooks Hope Center wins $100k for IMAlive.

Back in January, i sat down to write a note of thanks for your incredible support in the initial Chase Community Giving. That contest went down to the wire and your votes pushed us all the way to 3rd place, which meant $100,000 toward IMAlive, the live online crisis network we're working to launch with our partners Kristin Brooks Hope Center and PostSecret.

Now, only six months later, Chase Community Giving has happened once again and you guys were amazing once again. This time, we invited you to support Kristin Brooks Hope Center. Just like January, it came down to the final night. Thanks to your support, KBHC finished in 2nd to win another $100,000 for IMAlive.

The PostSecret community continues to demonstrate generosity and passion beyond words. Frank Warren's Sunday morning "Please Vote" request on PostSecret.com translated to thousands of votes, helping KBHC to climb from 8th all the way to the top.

While we were certainly aiming for that top spot, we want to take a moment to look at the bigger picture. First off, we want to say congratulations to the Harry Potter Alliance. Inspired by the stories of magic and wonder, Harry Potter fans are now working together to make the world a better place.

We also want to congratulate the following organizations that finished in the Top 200 and will be receiving $20,000 for their cause: Music Saves Lives, The Mentoring Project, Pablove Foundation, Surfers Healing and Strange Tree Group. There are many organizations doing important work and meeting needs in creative ways. Beyond the funding, we think it's wonderful that Chase Community Giving is bringing attention to so many significant causes.

The TWLOHA story is one of surprising open doors and you guys have always held the keys. You have taken our message and mission to places we never could have dreamed. Thank you for continuing to believe in hope and help. Thank you for your voices and your votes. Thank you for caring about people.

Peace to you today.
jamie

Comments (6) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

Chloe reflects on Bamboozle Roadshow

“I lost my cousin to suicide three days ago.” - West Palm Beach, FL

“My daughter cuts and I don’t know why.” - Arlington, TX

“I’m schizophrenic and have been suicidal for the past few years, but I have hope." - Houston, TX

“My best friend is going into treatment this week. She’s been going in and out of centers for the past four years. I just want to help her.” - San Antonio, TX

“I’m bipolar and I passed it on to both my children.” - Clarkston, MI

“All I want to do is stop. Everyone is scared but I don’t know what to do.” - Charlotte, NC

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Thank you. I wish there was something deeper or more profound to say to those of you who visited the TWLOHA table and shared your story at The Bamboozle Roadshow this year. But nothing feels like it’s quite enough or conveys how truly grateful my heart is for having met all of you. The comments above are just a few of the many stories I was fortunate enough to hear during the six-week tour.

The main reason we go on the road so much is to meet people where they are – to hear their hearts, and to present them with the idea, sometimes new, sometimes not so new, that they don’t have to live their lives alone. One of the biggest honors for me (and I’m comfortable saying this for our team as well) is being someone that a complete stranger trusts enough to share their darkest moments with. It’s beautifully overwhelming to be a person someone feels safe talking to about their struggles after only a brief introduction of names. My hope is that in these exchanges they (and possibly you) feel a bit of freedom from pain, and a sense of understanding. I also hope that you are able to be on the receiving end of conversations like this, to be someone that someone else needs.

I left for this tour with a heavy heart and hoped that the road would make it light again. What I found out was something I already knew. It wasn’t the road that was making things easier, it was people; seeing old friends, making new ones, and meeting all of you. It was sharing TWLOHA and parts of myself with others. “Your story is important.” We say that a lot because it’s true. What you have to say, and what you’ve experienced deserves to be known by others.

I wish for you this summer, and all the days after, that you have someone to share your story with.

With Love,
Chloe

P.S. Thank you to Bamboozle for letting us join your traveling summer camp. Thank you to so many of the artists for being curious about what we do, for wanting to get involved, or for showing continued support. We’re grateful for our friends in Boys Like Girls, Forever The Sickest Kids, Third Eye Blind, LMFAO, The Ready Set, and Cady Groves who all rocked TWLOHA at some point during the tour. And a big thank you to my dear friend Martin of Boys Like Girls for wearing a TWLOHA shirt everyday of the tour and for all of your support.

Comments (9) | Posted in Journal, Merch, Music by Chloe Grabanski

Hey Guys.

Wanted to invite you to check out my new blog on AltPress.com Wasn't sure what to write about but then i picked up a book called The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand last weekend - i'm early in the book but it's really been speaking to me. It put words to some things i've been feeling a while. i don't know about you but i feel like that's what a good book does. Anyway, my blog is inspired by that book. It's about following your heart and doing what you love, no matter what people say.

It's an honor to be invited to write for Alt Press. Their magazine and website mean a lot to a lot of people so this is a chance for us to share the message and mission of TWLOHA with some new folks. i hope you'll check it out. Feel free to leave a comment too, to let them know what you think.  

Peace to you today.
jamie

Comments (7) | Posted in General by jamie tworkowski

Hello Everyone,

If you can believe it, we are already in our second week of Warped Tour. This summer marks the sixteenth year of Warped and the crew has once again done an outstanding job bringing us a dynamic line-up of bands, vendors and non-profits.  We are so fortunate to be able to set up every day at this festival.

Emily and I are holding down the fort (tent) right now. We've also had some great volunteers, which helps so much. It is so good to see some familiar faces at the festival already. Thank you to you guys who have come up to talk and who support TWLOHA. It fuels us and helps us make it through every day of this tour.

And while we meet so many supporters who believe in our message, we also meet some who are skeptical. Last week, a younger man named Scott came asking about our organization. He walked up to the booth, read our mission statement, and asked, “I can see this (the mission statement on an info card) but I want to know what you really do to help?” After I explained to him what the organization does, he immediately opened up and shared some of his story. Once, in a moment of desperation, he was very close to attempting suicide. The only thing that kept him alive had been his wife coming home. Perfect timing. He is now seeking therapy and professional help.

At the Warped Tour stop in Ventura, all of the security guards were volunteers. And not just any volunteers, but military. A whole battalion had given up their time on a Sunday to make sure that the people at Warped were safe and having a good time. I ended up striking a conversation with one guard named Kevin. Kevin was short and had red hair. He looked young and his face was burnt from the long day. I pointed out his sunburn and we just started chatting from there. I explained the mission of TWLOHA and why we want to be at events like this, and he explained to me how he has suffered from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). He has been deployed to Iraq twice, and is now at home seeking help for his PTSD and spending time with his family.

Both of these young men share at least three things in common: they are both military veterans, they have seen the dark places that hurt and are hard to get out of, and both of them are seeking help to lift them out of those places. The reason I share both of these with you is because both of the stories of these young men are so hopeful. They both provide hope and show stories of redemption.

The government has a program called Military One Source for anyone who has served and is struggling that will assist and help pay for help. Both of these men have utilized these programs and found help. If you are struggling and feel like you need some assistance, I hope Kevin and Scott’s stories have given you some encouragement to seek it out.

I want to thank all of you again for coming to the tent to show support or curiosity. And thank you to Scott and Kevin for sharing some personal things. Kevin’s wife is pregnant with their first child, and he finds out soon whether it is a boy or girl.

Good luck Scott and Kevin. You made my day.

 With Hope,
Jason Blades

PS: CLICK HERE to see all upcoming Warped Tour dates. 

Comments (2) | Posted in General, Music by jamie tworkowski