Many thanks to Dodds Hayden, Vice Chair for the Idaho Board of Correction.

Hayden Beverage Corp.
2910 East Amity Rd.
Boise, ID 83716

12.17.24

Dear Mr. Hayden,

Three years ago I wrote you from the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to thank you for personally sponsoring an entire Boise State University humanities class at the Idaho State Correctional Institution. Today I write you as a student who recently completed what I’m told was the fifth class in the series you’ve since continued to sponsor, Storytelling and Re-storying with Dr. Reshmi Mukherjee.

You will be happy to know that Dr. Mukherjee exceeded our class’s combined expectations. Her selected materials, homework assignments and amazing talent for energizing robust group discussions thoroughly impacted us all. After giving our class more hours and weeks than scheduled, she helped us (in what she called our “final project”) to facilitate a critical empathy-building, re-storying exercise between corrections staff and residents.

Enclosed is a sketch and a custom-made bookmark from a 61-year-old man named Tim Yates (#41425), who until recently had never commissioned his artwork or been asked to share his story. Tim is as delighted to know why I chose you to receive these works as I am by his permitting me to share his art and story.

Wishing you and yours the best,
happy holidays,

Patrick Irving
bookofiriving82431.com

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