«« backOn Friday January 19, 2007, Father Jeff Putthoff SJ received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Medal from the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The event was held on the Campus of Camden County College in Blackwood, NJ. Freeholder Riletta L. Cream was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening. Freeholder Louis Capelli, Jr. nominated Father Jeff for the award, who recognized Jeff as one of New Jersey's distinguished citizens. He was commended for his "Selfless devotion of countless hours to the betterment of society in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."
Putthoff founded Hopeworks, a web- and media-training center in Camden, a town famous for its poverty and lack of hope. Young people learn various skills in web design and the program is now branching out into movie making as well. Hopeworks trainees are eagerly anticipating the launch of our new Digital Storytelling program. In this program, youth will work with Literacy Director Leigh Anne Purnell to write a personal narrative on an experience in their lives. Next they will record pictures and images, digitize them and import them into a video editing environment. Youth will then record their voices and music to narrate their own digital story, incorporating the images they captured into an personal "Digital Story." We hope to hold our first firm session in March and follow up with Hopeworks' first film festival in April.