SART Conference 2011: Spreading the music, one song at a time

What an incredible experience we had last week. We shared the Angel Band Project story with over 1,000 participants at the SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) Training Conference in Austin. After our speech, people flooded our merchandise table (we literally had SART Travel Staff jumping in to help process all the orders for CD’s and T-shirts!) We got to meet a lot of wonderful people over those three days, and are so grateful that we had the chance to spread our story to this audience. Knowing that these people devote their careers to helping victims of sexual violence on a daily basis, and realizing that our story has touched their hearts in some way, is more gratifying than either of us had imagined. Thank you SART and the Department of Justice for believing in us.

Our mission of promoting hope and healing through music for those affected by sexual violence is really starting to have an impact. And Teresa, you are in our hearts with every new person who “joins the band.”

Healing In the Wake of Violence, One Song at a Time

In a few weeks, Jean and I will be headed to Austin, Texas, for the U.S. Department of Justice Sixth Annual SART (Sexual Assault Response Team) Training Conference.  We will be presenting the Angel Band Project story to those who work on a daily basis with victims of sexual violence, including medical personnel, victim advocates, crime lab personnel and others involved in community response to these crimes.

We will be giving one of six keynote presentations at the conference, which involves nearly 900 participants.  We are humbled by this invitation to share our story.  We have been working together these past few days to polish our presentation.  It’s hard to describe just how special Teresa was to us.  We have hundreds of stories that we could share, but we have one hour in which to succinctly convey her importance, and why we were inspired to create the Angel Band Project in her honor.  But somehow, we’ll do it!

We are grateful for this opportunity, and hope that it will create awareness and exposure to this important group of people.  (And yes, we’ll be selling CDs and t-shirts as well!)