Charity Buzz: Amazing Place Teams up with Inprint

The first class to complete the Inprint/Amazing Place writing pilot program. Teacher Miah Arnold, Ph.D. is second from left in the second row. Writing workshops will continue at Amazing Place this January.

Amazing Place, a day center for adults with mild to moderate dementia, has recently teamed up with Inprint, a nonprofit which offers writing workshops and programs to inspire writers. This fall, the two organizations tried out a 6-week writing workshop as a pilot, and it was so successful that these workshops will be held on a regular basis. Both the fall program and the upcoming 12-week workshop, which begins in January, are led by Miah Arnold, Ph.D., a local, award-winning fiction writer. 

The participants, teacher and staff members from Amazing Place have been touched by their time in the class so far. The unique program has demonstrated that, even with dementia, these students are incredibly enthusiastic to express themselves and tell their stories through writing. 

“I love listening to the students sharing their life stories with each other,” Miah says, “Helping them connect with each other and with the small and large moments of their lives is a lucky thing to be part of. This is the best kind of teaching there is, no doubt, and I feel grateful every week that I get to be there.” 

The ultimate goal is to publish an anthology of the students’ writing to share with their families and the community. 

Below is a poem from by Gene W., one of the participants in the fall pilot program: 

Excitedly, I slowly approached the Monarch butterfly
as it fluttered erratically 
to my dismay I saw that it had only one working wing.
What beauty and tragedy. 

I, too, frozen in the moment.
An early death was growing in the hope of life,
A hope that would never fly. 

If you would like more to donate to continue to support the Inprint Writing Program, contact Ramsey Howell, at 713-552-0420 or see more information here. 

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