Hey Guys,
Thanks beyond words for an amazing year. In case you missed anything, these were the highlights (enough links to keep you busy until 2011):
January 11, 2009 at House of Blues Orlando
Intro Video – The night began with white words against black and a simple song…
Atlantic City – Josh Moore & Dustin Kensrue cover Bruce Springsteen
Encore Video – The whole gang comes back out to cover The Beatles and it ends up on the front page of Spin.com
Live Webcast – Thanks to SyncLive, you can still watch the show from start to finish.
Photos by Andy Barron
HAPPY BIRTHDAY – “It’s crap unless it moves you…”
OTTAWA – Jamie heads north and crosses the border w/ Zach Williams, Zach’s wife, baby and band. It’s TWLOHA’s first-ever Canadian event.
VALENTINE’S DAY DOESN’T HAVE TO SUCK – AbsolutePunk.net Live Chat
AUSTRALIA / SOUNDWAVE 2009
For Australia Blog – “As much as possible, across an internet and across all the oceans, we want to say that we’re with you right now.”
Welcome to Australia Blog – “We were there in that tiny room and we’re here in Australia because we believe it to be true, that people matter and that hope is real…”
Photos – by Rich Sullivan
Video – “Every person in every sea of people is also a story and every story matters.”
CONTRAST – “We might be idealists to the point of believing that a sweatshirt can be more than a sweatshirt…”
TWLOHA AT RON JON SURF SHOP – “Oh and if somebody asks why TWLOHA shirts would be sold in a surf shop, tell them not to overthink it. People are always the most important thing…”
TWLOHA AT SXSW – “There’s 40,000 people in town for this. The busiest street is Sixth and there are these two banners on the corner of Sixth and Trinity…”
Welcome to Austin – Video
Austin / SXSW – (extended) Video
MEET DAMION SUOMI – “i hope you get to live in a house that is also a gang.”
THREE YEARS AGO TONIGHT – “Somewhere along the way, between that night in Boca and this night where you are, our story bumped into yours.
FOR VIRGINIA TECH – “Today we join them in remembering.”
BAMBOOZLE LEFT IN CA / THE BAMBOOZLE IN NJ
IT’S OKAY TO SAY REAL THINGS – “Let’s make things that matter and move.”
FOR YOU ON MOTHER’S DAY – “If that is your dream, then please know that it’s possible.”
SUICIDE & NEW MEDIA SUMMIT – Jamie attends in Washington DC
REMEMBER – “They are the fallen and the fighting and the ones forever trying to make sense of ‘home’.”
POSTSECRET / IN RESPONSE – “If you struggle with self-injury, you are not ‘a cutter’. You are a person.”
A NEW VOICE: MEET KAITLYN – “Join us in encouraging others to dream, to breathe deeply, to fill their lungs with air and be fully alive…”
GLASGOW MEET & GREET – Gathering for TWLOHA supporters in the UK
George Square @ Glasgow City Centre – 7 June 2009
– “We want to say that we see the confusion.”
WE CAME FOR MARY – “She said she read the words ‘To Write Love on Her Arms’ and all she knew was that she wanted that for her sister. A funny-sounding phrase for most made all the sense in the world to her.”
FOREVER LOVE (collaboration w/ Forever the Sickest Kids)
– “He told me once that he believed friendship might be life’s greatest gift.”
VIDEO: PRO SURFER C.J. HOBGOOD – “There’s nothing in the closest, there’s nothing you’re scared of…”
STORY CATCHERS – “It is the difficult and the unexpected, and maybe even the tragic, that opens us up and frees us to see things in new ways.”
TWLOHA UNIVERSITY CHAPTERS – “Personally, i have tasted this hope and help that can only be found in community. I have known what it feels like to move from death to life…”
The blog below received more comments than any other blog we posted in 2009. It’s worth noting that it wasn’t originally meant to be a blog – it was simply an email sent by one member of our team to another member of our team, in the middle of a painful season:
YOU ARE GOING TO MOVE THROUGH THIS – “You are LOVED in ways you cannot imagine. In ways that don’t depend on you…”
TODAY IS WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY – “We get to guard and fight and care, for the people around us.”
TODAY, WE JOIN YOU IN REMEMBERING – “We can build back the buildings but we can’t replace the lives that were lost on 9/11.”
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY AND WHAT WOULD YOU SING? (Jamie’s Guest Blog for AltPress.com) – “There’s room for magic and inspiration.”
LIVE WEBCAST FROM TWLOHA HQ W/ DAMION SUOMI, ANDY ZIPF AND THE TWLOHA TEAM – “The goal is simple: music as the vehicle, honesty in conversation, community locally and around the country (world?!).”
I AND LOVE AND YOU (A mission statement by The Avett Brothers)
TWLOHA INCLUDED IN MAJOR STORY: “YOUTH PUSH FOR LOUDER CONVERSATION ABOUT SUICIDE” – New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle…
ALLIANCE OF YOUTH MOVEMENTS SUMMIT – Chris Youngblood and Jamie Tworkowski attend the 2nd Annual AYM Summit in Mexico City.
VIDEO: JAMIE TALKS MTVU WOODIE AWARDS (and has a tough time introducing himself)
SIDE BY SIDE, WE WALKED – “We walked for the woman on the beach who lost her brother to suicide. We walked with the family who lost their father two months ago.”
SOME THOUGHTS ON TWLOHA DAY – “Let’s aim for how love looks and how it sounds – maybe something like humility and confidence and kindness, maybe honesty and compassion…”
December 4 – 5, 2009
OFF TO THE WOODIE AWARDS / THANK YOU!! – “It’s my honor to represent you at the Woodie Awards tonight, to get to be there on behalf of people who struggle and people who care.”
VIDEO: “MUSIC FOR GOOD” CMJ PANEL – TWLOHA’s Jamie Tworkowski is joined by Charity: Water’s Phillip Crosby and Invisible Children’s Alex Collins. Steven Smith of Fuse leads the conversation and Zach Williams brings the music. The guys talk storytelling, branding, technology, touring and more at CMJ 2009 in New York City.
SOME THOUGHTS ON NATIONAL SURVIVORS OF SUICIDE DAY – “We say it matters, their story and yours, and we join you to remember. Please know that you are not alone.”
“I THINK I KNOW HOW AGAIN.” – “She helped me open up and finally talk about what was going on in my head.”
TWLOHA IN FLORIDA TODAY – “We’re talking about issues that tend to live in secret, so honesty is the first step…”
– Your next layover at JFK, Miami or Tampa just got a little easier.
UPDATES TO TWLOHA.COM
– Boys Like Girls and YOU help us launch IMAlive
– TWLOHA Team heads north for first-ever international MOVE Community Conference
– We decide to do another MOVE during HEAVY AND LIGHT in Orlando
– An NYU Film student spends more than 150 hours working on this for one of his classes and dedicates the project to a friend he lost to suicide.
FOR EMPTY SEATS AND ELEPHANTS IN ROOMS AND DREAMS THAT FEEL IMPOSSIBLE – “Keep going. Keep fighting. Talk to someone. Get the help you need.”
HOW ABOUT 2010?
– Your support helped us win $25k in Round 1. Now we have a shot at $1 Million!!
AN EVENING WITH TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS:
– TWLOHA founder Jamie Tworkowski speaking at universities across America in February 2010. Special Guests: Musicians Zach Williams and Damion Suomi, Counselor Aaron Moore, TWLOHA Director of University Relations Denny Kolsch
– IMAlive will be the first live online peer-to-peer crisis network
In closing…
We are fans of this time of year, all the fuss and wonder about midnight, that maybe things can change, maybe things can be new…
From all of us at TWLOHA…
Happy New Year.
jamie
PS: “A long December and there’s reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last.” – Counting Crows