Markers and colored pencils dashed across papers, turning them into letters of encouragement soon to be delivered to prison inmates as Mock Trial Club completed their spring service project on May 1 in Room 2716 during Cardinal Hour.

The letters that members wrote for anonymous inmates via writeaprisoner.com, which contains the addresses of inmates, will be mailed by senior and club founder Skylar Campbell. As a new club this year, this is their first service project.

Senior member Gladys Tumax said she thought it was a “really cool idea” when Campbell first told her about the project.

“Bellaire writes a lot of letters for service projects throughout different clubs, but it’s new to me to write letters to inmates,” Tumax said. “I especially liked that the letters are for inmates because I feel like not a lot of people consider them as much.”

In her letter, Tumax wrote about how even though times get hard, it’s important to hold on to a strand of positivity and hope.

“I wrote that even if it doesn’t look like it’s the brightest time in the world right now, things will definitely get better as time goes on,” Tumax said. “I hope that even though my letter is a bit corny, whoever receives and reads my letter is able to gain a little bit of happiness.”

Senior member Natanim Ejigu happened to be in Room 2716 when the club announced it would be writing letters, and said she was the first person to say ‘I’m in.’

“I feel like not all inmates are bad,” Ejigu said. “Everybody deserves a letter, and it sounds like they need a word of encouragement.”

Ejigu said her note was funny, as she didn’t want the note to be too serious.

“I told them that not everybody’s born bad, and then the world makes them that way by force, so there’s still hope to be good,” Ejigu said. “I hope my letter changed a person. My letter is not that deep, but I hope somebody smiles when they see it.”

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