The boys are two of six kids with a single mother who works a night job, due to the hours and location, public transportation was not an option when the family car broke down. The boys mom had to rely on friends and neighbors to get to work, take the kids to day care or school, and run necessary errands.  The family was given $950 to repair the car so that the boys could continue with YAFL and help mom with work, and errands.

Due to my own great experiences, I became eager to add something new to the mix –
the creativity and enthusiasm of Albuquerque’s youth. The city has several media
arts charter schools and some small film making programs in the public school
system. Not to mention, a fair amount of support from the local industry as well as
the city and state film offices to keep this business going. Emmy award winning
television shows and Academy award winning films have been shot here in the past
few years and everyone is aware of that, especially the kids who love to watch them!
So I cast my net wide to recruit them for the summer, creating a small IATSE crew
out of the ones that show the most interest. For several weeks as part of the
Guerrilla Film Squad, they learn the basic rules of the movie making process.
Screenwriting, camera, sound, set etiquette, editing and a little acting. Learning
through hands on experience with the tools that are industry standards the kids
become prepared for the actual 48 hour competition. I must admit, the results might
surprise you. You might think it would be an exercise in herding cats. But the focus
and energy they bring is infectious. With the help of a small group of industry
mentors (not to mention the soft drinks and pizza) they manage to keep their game
faces on to the finish. This last summer, the script was finished before 12pm the

night the event began… the shooting was done before the sun went down the second
day and the editing was complete with an hour to spare! Remarkable! And – most
importantly, everyone had a good time, made new friends and learned a lot –
including me (the drill sergeant for the Guerrilla Film Squad). So next time you are
yelling at that kid of yours for goofing off on the computer or playing with video
games… maybe you should challenge them to do something a little more
constructive with their time, like making a movie. And only give then a weekend to
do it. You might be impressed by what they come up with!

Written By: Darryl Deloach

Before I was in prison, I was actually in a much worse prison, the prison of my mind. I had lived in the same community outside of Albuquerque for 36 years. People there respected me and I raised my two boys there. People thought I had the perfect life and I did for 34 of those years. Then my business started to fall apart and I didn’t have the courage to admit to myself or anybody, that everything was falling apart for me. I started to gamble with other people’s money with a twisted logic that it would be a way of climbing out my debt. They call this living a shadow life, when you are one person on the outside and another on the inside. Losing my self respect, I lived life without a conscience. When a person lives in a shadow, their life is a lie, and there seems to be no escape. When I was sentenced to prison, I no longer had anything to hide, my life was an open book. Being sentenced to prison freed me, it was like a breath of fresh air, I could finally exhale. My youngest son watched me get arrested, he was a sophomore in high school, we did everything together, that pain along with the pain that I inflicted on my family,
was a very heavy burden and now they knew my shadow life.

Every person upon entering prison has a choice to make – Am I just going to do my time, or am I going to change? I was arrested on January 10, 2007 and was in the county jail without a bond for 7-½ months before being sentenced to prison on July 18th, 2007. Jail and prison are no different than the world outside, a person must learn to live with his fellow man, not judge, and learn to accept them for who they are. Easier said than done but a great life lesson.

On August 19th, 2007, I was transferred to a minimum security prison called the Farm, to begin serving a 20 month sentence. The first place I went to was the chapel and met all the men that were active within that community. At first I went every night, but I learned quickly that a person has to practice discernment , like anything else you must be strong in your beliefs or you will open yourself up to a lot of false teachings. Entering prison I was computer illiterate and when I found out that they offered computer classes I felt this was good place to start on my metamorphosis. By the time I left prison I had taken 18 hours of college level computer courses. I got a job in the
education department, helping men get their G.E.D.’s, and I ran a program called Father’s As Readers. FAR was a great program, men got to read 2 books a week to their kids on tape, we would package the tape, the books, and send them to their kids at no cost to them. All the books were donated by local church groups and ex-inmates who had been in the program.

It was while working in the education department that my life began to change. Prison is a community, no different than the outside. Many of the young men that I worked with had never learned to live in a community or how to act in one. My advice to them was always to start learning those behaviors now and maybe, just maybe their life would be easier when they got out. Control what comes out of your mouth and start resisting the temptations that are so abundant in the prison system, because if you can’t do it in here you aren’t going to do it on the outside. I had my own office and computer, only one of three inmates in the whole prison with that privilege and it was in the privacy of that office that men would open up to me. There are bad and evil people in prison, and there are men that will lie to your face about how they intend to change their lives once they get out, but there are a lot of good people in prison also. You have to take the good with the bad, because they are people and they all have a story to tell.

Those stories changed my life. Just like the stories that you read about in the Bible, about people who go from good, to bad, to good, that make you believe in redemption, so go the stories of these people. The one underlying theme in every story of course is that moment of epiphany. The moment you made that fateful decision that cost you your freedom, honor, and self-respect. It all boils down to that one moment, the one you will never get back, but can atone for. It is powerful to go back through your life and stare down that abyss. I can still recall every story.

I was released from prison on April 20th, 2009. My life had been forever changed, I felt younger than when I went to prison, my life had visions again. I knew that I never just wanted to sit and watch TV for the rest of my life, that I needed to hear people’s stories. I no longer wanted to walk by that guy holding the sign saying the world is going to end but to find out why he thinks that. My head was full of ideas about prison reform and a belief that people could change. I left prison with a confidence that I would be alright. Why, I don’t know because people leaving prison have nothing but an uphill battle, trying to find a job and housing. What I did have was the love
of my family waiting for me, and the knowledge that someday when I was finished with my parole that I would be back to try and make a difference in the lives of incarcerated people. If I hadn’t been to prison I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this testimonial and quite frankly the story of my life before I went to prison wouldn’t have had much interest. ( I’m not trying to say it does now, but at least I have a story.) I believe that every person upon their release should be able to look back at that experience as a positive thing because they are better people for it.

Every person I met, I told them where I had been for the past 2-½ years. It opened up more doors than it closed and started up incredible conversations. Why? Have you heard about the philosophy of 6 degrees of separation? There are so many people in the corrections system within United States that everybody is affected by it in some form. They have a relative, know a friend, co-worker, somebody that is currently incarcerated or on parole. The degree of separation is much smaller than 6 degrees.

On April 23rd , 2009, three days after I was released, I met a gentlemen named Victor Kearny at a dinner party. For 2-3 hours Victor asked me questions about my experience in prison. I repeated to him everything I have written here previously and much more. I have only touched lightly about my philosophy of life that was shaped by my experience, but the real reason for this testimonial is about One Skin Suit and Victor Kearny and how it allowed me to become remarkable.

A month after meeting Victor, he called me and asked for a meeting. He presented me with a workbook, based on a anger management program out of California, that he was interested in bringing into New Mexico and would I please read the book, and give him feed back after I did the research. Huh? In my previous life I did landscape designs and sales. For one month I read that book and did research on the internet about the author and his organization. One web site led me to another and before I knew it I had files about the prison reform movement going on in New Mexico and groups dealing with everything from substance abuse to child abuse.

A month later on June 18th, 2009, I presented Victor with all the files I put together. He didn’t really look at all my hard work, but he offered me a job, with his non-profit organization, One Skin Suit. My job was to continue looking for ways to bring this program into New Mexico and he sent me to an organization he gave money to that housed homeless teens. He wanted me to find out more about it. This led me on an amazing trail that sent me from one meeting to the next, to a point that by August I was appointed to the board of the State of New Mexico prison reform movement. I was working with people in all sorts of fields from the private sector, non profit organizations, all the way to head of the entire State of New Mexico Corrections Department. All while I am still on parole. At every meeting I would stand up and introduce myself as just having been released from prison. People would gravitate to me, they wanted to hear reality.

My job with One Skin Suit, like my prison experience put me in places I would never have been under normal circumstances. One Skin Suit, when people read my business card it makes them think, and then they ask me what does it mean. I think the beauty of the name is that it turns everybody into a philosopher. To me, it means a person has only one skin to live with. You must care for it and nourish it with good choices and knowledge, the Bible says that your body is your temple. That skin encompasses your self-esteem and once you mar it, you harm your psyche
and you will now be living in that shadow life. The beauty of skin is that it can heal. You might make a mistake but there is redemption and forgiveness. There will forever be a scar but it will only be a reminder to make the right choices. One Skin Suit sends me to places to try and find people that are trying to change their lives or other people’s lives. The advocates I meet are so dedicated to what they do that it humbles me. If we can change one person’s life, if we can keep him from making that one fateful decision, something as simple as getting behind the
wheel when they have had too much to drink, a decision that could alter their life forever, then I think Victor Kearny would consider that a success.

The Donation:  $2000 to help fund the annual golf tournament plus annual scholarships to selected young adults

The Donation: $3,000.00

Donation: $300 and two Flip cameras.

Donation:  New audio and video equipment (Cash value $600)

In order to expand their program, H.O.P.E co-directors Kristen Koffman and Albert Rosales were given $700 to hold a summer program to train new HOPE art and dance instructors. The training program was seven weeks. Trainees in the program taught H.O.P.E’s youth summer classes, and were evaluated based on their instruction.  Trainees that successfully completed the seven week training (fulfilling all requirements) received a $100.00 stipend.  Seven people made it through the program. These new instructors allowed the H.O.P.E program to expand from two APS high schools during the 2009-10 school year to five APS high school during the 2010-11 school year.

There were 100 t-shirts donated to H.O.P.E so that students and participants had a way to demonstrate what they were a part of through program advertisement.  Additionally, they will serve as a uniform during H.O.P.E performances.

But it wasn’t a game. Learning to heal myself after each procedure was an art form, perfected through the play of a child. Those 5 or 6 needles didn’t scare this kid! I was often used by nurses to calm a frightened child, “Look HE doesn’t cry.” The other child noticing my blank face as they wiped their tears. Some kids do a bit better than others in that kind of environment. But still a child has a resilience that surpasses that of an adult in the same situation.

Those experiences are what drew me to the idea of working with the kids at the Children’s Hospital. Having memories of what it was like to always be on the mend. Trying to explain medical procedures to your friends at school as they become whoozy at the thought, “…they stuck a what, where?! AND YOU WERE AWAKE!” Sometimes there are things that are hard to explain, emotionally, physically they are difficult things for a kid to get their head around. This is where the cameras and I come in. Initially with fun and humor, I want the kids to explore the idea and feeling they have about what they have gone through. Examining the things that get on their nerves, laughing at the strange situations that only they encounter, simply put, using the camera to have fun. Yet ultimately I would like them to explore the more difficult stuff. The things they fear or make them uncomfortable. Sharing with themselves and others just how hard it can be to fight illness. When you’re weak, in pain, afraid… what helps you push through?
It is my hope, as well as the Child Life program and their own families, that giving them a tool to dissect what they are going through will give them a new source to find that healing energy they posses. An energy they can share with other children.

Initially I will be utilizing a standard Professional DV camera, helping them to film the fake commercials and phony ads that they came up with. In the process, teaching them the basics about lighting, how to use a camera, sound, etc. then eventually getting them smaller flip cams that they will take with them, creating simple video blogs about things in their life, interviewing doctors, parents, and friends. The kids came up with a format I really like. Patterned after Saturday Night Lives’ Weekend Report, we will edit and shoot segments to be put together like a mock news report being able to cut back and forth between segments they have created. What we will end up with… will be anyone’s guess!

Donation Needed: 6 Flip Cameras and a Hard Drive (Cash value – $900)