Though Alex and I thoroughly enjoy one another's company, we are thrilled to announce that we will have some new faces in the office come August! TCASK recently received word that we have secured an intern from Vanderbilt Divinity School who will be with us for the academic year beginning in the fall. And as if that news was not great enough, yesterday, word came down that we were selected as a placement site for a Young Adult Volunteer through the Nashville Epiphany Project or NEP, a project of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) housed at Second Presbyterian, Nashville. To be selected as a site means that NEP will seek out a young person who is interested in working to abolish the death penalty, and if the program finds a match, TCASK will gain a volunteer organizer for a full year, 30 hours a week!

But, why stop there? TCASK is also applying for a Jesuit volunteer who would begin in the fall as well. Some of you may recall that we received the gift of Alex Wiesendanger through the JV program. My hope is that by the end of the summer, our office will be bustling with staff, ready to hit the streets, working toward the goal of abolition. TCASK continues to make great strides in changing public opinion about the death penalty, and the additional staff will enhance our efforts exponentially. Though we have been hit with some very bad news from the state with the two scheduled executions for this month, the news of these interns give us something to smile about.