My SoCal GOTB Surprise...

As some of you know, I was out in California for about 10 days.  The main impetus for my trip was the wedding of my brother-in-law Tom to his new bride my now sister-in-law Erin.  The wedding couldn't have been  more beautiful and the good kharma seemed to carry throughout the rest of the trip.  I got a chance to get up to the Get On The Bus office on Friday, August 5 to meet with my old boss and founder of Get On The Bus Sr. Suzanne Jabro.

This was an especially special trip because almost 1 year ago to the day, I had left California for the East Coast and within the course of last year, Suzanne has also moved into her new role of Founder so this was the first time we were both back at the office.  I drove down Camellia Ave. just like old times and parked my car.  When I got into the office, I saw a film crew setting up their equipment in our dining room.  As always, I chalked it up to another day at GOTB.  However, I had no idea what was in store for my visit.  The truth, which I didn't know at the time, was the film crew was there to present Suzanne, me and Get On The Bus a documentary they had shot right before I left.

After being greeted by the new Get On The Bus staff, I was told that there was a surprise in store.  As I came back out to the dining room, I was greeted by Maureen Herman, founder of Project Noise (www.projectnoise.org), a nonprofit film organization that creates short documentary style videos for nonprofits.  During last year's event, Project Noise (www.projectnoise.org) had filmed a bus that my husband Joe coordinating leaving from South LA and going to Chowchilla Women's Prison for Mother's Day.  Like any other nonprofit, after they were able to find the funding to shoot the footage, they had to look for another grant to support the editing and post production process.  For those of you who are aspiring film makers, you know this is no easy task.  Thankfully, a foundation stepped forward and supported this process and below is the final result.

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Project Noise and Maureen for being so persistent in the process and for painting the story of the families in a powerful yet concise format. Also a big THANK YOU to the new GOTB staff, mainly Kathy the new ED for coordinating the surprise.  It was truly a blessing to be a part of all of this and more good things to come in the future!