NY Times Best Selling Author Slated for May Program in Williamsport

With funding made available through a $9,000 grant from the Williamsport Lycoming Community Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, the Williamsport Area School District is coordinating a visit from New York Times bestselling author Wes Moore for a collaborative, multi-organizational event scheduled for this spring.

Moore, author of “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” will speak to area students about personal responsibility, the practice of good decision making and the power of education at 10:30 a.m. on May 24 at the Community Arts Center.

The 34-year-old’s memoir will be the basis for the program, which tells the tale of the inner-city destinies of two Baltimore men who carry the same name and similar histories amid the struggles of urban life, but whose journeys through adolescence and emergence into adulthood are startlingly different.

“The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine,” Moore writes in the opening paragraph of his book. “The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”

At 22, the author was declared and enjoying the value of becoming a Rhodes Scholar. At roughly the same time, his counterpart was the suspect in a highly publicized manhunt and capture following the assassination of a jewelry store security guard, an off-duty police officer, during a robbery gone horribly wrong.

Today, that Wes Moore continues to serve a life sentence on a conviction of felony murder, while the author went on to make landmark accomplishments, such as becoming a White House Fellow, a decorated war veteran and an NBC News contributor. He’s been featured in People and Time magazines, USA Today, and on MSNBC and Oprah.

Most recently, he launched and hosts the television series “Beyond Belief” on the Oprah Winfrey Network, while continuing his work as a youth advocate by traveling around the country speaking to students on the lessons evoked from his and the other Wes Moore’s lives.

“We’ve invited the other Lycoming County school districts to attend the program,” Greg Hayes, director of the WASD Education Foundation and public relations, said. “Going into this, we knew our district and Loyalsock Township already were planning to teach the book at the secondary level. So, we’re also encouraging each of the districts invited to make the book available to the students they have coming before the event so that the program is more meaningful.”

More than 1,000 students from around Lycoming County are expected to attend the May event.

“Because the story is so powerful,” Hayes said, “we wanted to reach the maximum number of students possible who are around the same age that both Wes Moores were when they made their most critical choices. With the Community Arts Center agreeing to come on board with this project, attaching it to its Educational Series and helping to cover the student transportation costs, we have the opportunity to reach a couple thousand students.”

 In addition to the $9,000 grant, the WASD Education Foundation allocated $2,500 of its Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) funds from the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania, as well, to put toward Moore’s visit.

“The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania is proud to support an event that facilitates collaboration among our Lycoming County school districts for the benefit of students in our community,” said Jennifer Wilson, president and CEO of the organization.

“The Community Foundation encourages partnerships, which is a primary consideration in our unrestricted granting process,” Wilson added. “It is exciting to see a project such as this become a reality because of support from several funds at the First Community Foundation, including our EITC fund, the Tree House fund and the Williamsport Lycoming Community Funds.”

Moore’s book has received enormous critical acclaim since its publication in 2010, getting the attention from those such as Dr. Benjamin Carson, who visited the city and its schools in 2009. Carson also penned the autobiography “Gifted Hands.”

In his review, Carson calls Moore’s memoir “a compelling story that gets to the heart of the matter on faith, education, the hard facts of incarceration, and the choices and challenges we all face in our lives. It’s educational and inspiring.”

The Community Arts Center, which also hosted Carson’s visit, sees this spring’s event as a “sterling example of our community’s rapidly growing commitment to advance educational opportunities for area students,” according to Executive Director Rob Steele.

“(We’re) truly delighted to join the growing list of community institutions and individuals that are not only supporting these educational initiatives with financial support,” Steele added, “but rolling up their sleeves and working to assure that our students are exposed to a wide variety of perspectives.”

“We are grateful to the First Community Foundation and the Community Arts Center for helping us to make this project possible,” said Dr. Kathleen R. Kelley, superintendent. “Wes Moore delivers a powerful message, and demonstrates how important it is for all students to make good choices in life.”

Working in partnership with the WASD Education Foundation, one local company is making it possible for about 350 eighth-grade students in the district to read “The Other Wes Moore” this spring before the author’s visit.

Brodart Co. locked in a reduced rate per paperback copy of the memoir for the district, and also contributed $1,250 toward the overall cost of a class set of 180 copies.

“Brodart is committed to supporting literacy and educational growth in our community,” said Rick Dill, the company’s chief financial officer. “We are proud to work with the Education Foundation to help reach these goals.”

“Wes Moore’s honest approach in his book will surely touch many of our students’ lives,” said Maria Weaver, an eighth-grade English teacher at Curtin Middle School.  “It is our hope that our students will remember his visit, and his book forever, because it has the power to change their lives.”

For more information on Wes Moore, visit www.theotherwesmoore.com.

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