Greetings!

I’m writing to share truly exciting news — and to ask for your help at one of the most important moments in our organization’s history.

People & Stories / Gente y Cuentos (P&S/GyC) is honored and thrilled to have been awarded Honorable Mention for the 2025 Stanley N. Katz Prize for Excellence in Public Humanities from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities (NJCH).

This distinction, given after what has been noted as “the most competitive year ever for this award,” recognizes our groundbreaking initiative, “Our Common Ground: Poetry in Community.”

Through this humanities program, P&S/GyC expanded its 50-year tradition of short story programming for marginalized audiences to include poetry; integrating visits by published poets and expanding our bibliography offerings in exciting ways.

From summer 2024 through summer 2025, nearly 5,000 participants, ages 14 to 94, found joy and sustenance in reading and writing poetry, discussing literature, and creating anthologies of their group work in both English and Spanish.

Funded through a first-time partnership grant award from The Poetry Foundation and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, "Our Common Ground" brought poetry, reflection, and creative expression to marginalized and under-resourced communities in New Jersey and greater Philadelphia.

We launched this poetry initiative on July 4, 2024, at Morven Museum & Garden’s Jubilee Celebration—the home of Declaration of Independence signer Richard Stockton and his wife, poet Annis Boudinot Stockton, one of America’s earliest published female poets. The symbolism was profound: poetry and freedom, story and voice, belonging to everyone.

From that day forward our coordinators witnessed something extraordinary. Participants who had never before written a poem discovered the power of their own words. People who had felt invisible saw themselves reflected in the poems they read aloud. And across every group, we saw how poetry and story could bridge generations, languages, and lives. We’re deeply proud of this recognition - and grateful to everyone who made this historic initiative possible. And, as we celebrate today, we also face an equally historic challenge.

Federal funds are frozen. Our mission can't be.

The federal funding freeze has halted key grant opportunities, leaving a $60,000 shortfall that threatens our ability to sustain ongoing programs this year and into next year.

To meet this challenge, we’ve launched a matching gift campaign:

Protect People & Stories — $60,000 in 60 Days!

We are grateful that a Leadership Match Challenge will double every gift up to $20,000 by December 15, 2025, allowing your generosity to go twice as far in supporting free poetry and literature programs for adults, teens, and seniors in marginalized communities, largely in New Jersey, as well as the greater Philadelphia area.

Your donation today helps us:

• Keep every scheduled literature and poetry workshop running through winter and spring.
• Support and pay our trained coordinators — the heart of our mission.
• Expand our community partnerships.

Today's exciting and humbling Katz Prize recognition affirms that our work truly matters! Bringing short stories and poems to people who might never have had the chance to encounter and discuss them changes lives.

Together, we celebrate the joy in being recognized for the renowned Katz Prize. And, we gratefully seek your help to protect and sustain this important work. Please be as generous as you are able, with the knowledge that your gift is a lifeline to protect People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos' programs, now and for the future.



Many warm hugs,

(as our founder, Sarah Hirschman, would close letters to her friends, I am grateful for your friendship and support)

Debra

Debra Lampert-Rudman, M.Ed.

Executive Director, People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos

P.S. If you’d like to discuss ways your gift can have the greatest impact during this campaign, or how we can honor your support, I welcome the chance to connect personally. Please reach out to me anytime either via email at debra@peopleandstories.org or by phone at 609-882-4926 ext. 1 -

With many thanks for considering this request - D.