To the Editor:

On behalf of The Petey Greene Program, we would like to thank all the many sponsors and ticketholders who helped to make our first public fundraiser on September 26 a success!

The evening’s guest speakers were Princeton native and Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle and Roger Durling, ED of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Peddie School trustee. Both speakers praised Princeton as a community that allowed for ‘big ideas’ and then supported those ideas with philanthropic support. The Petey Greene Program is one such ‘big idea,’ a nonprofit established by Princeton alumni in 2008 that trains university students to tutor incarcerated students in weekly one-on-one sessions. This academic enrichment greatly improves the odds for incarcerated students and at the same time awakens university students to the injustices of mass incarceration in America.

There are now Petey Greene Programs in 30 colleges and universities from D.C. to Boston, which will deploy as many as 1,200 tutors to work with incarcerated students this academic year. More than 2,500 students will benefit. The growth of this invaluable program would never have been possible without the support of the greater Princeton community. We thank our guest speakers, everyone who attended last Thursday’s event, and those who have given time and financial support to Petey Greene over the past 11 years.

Melanie Clark, Lee Gladden and Melissa von Stade
Event Co-Chairs