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From: Stacy Brooks <stacybrooks@lisatrust.net>
Subject: The Leo J. Ryan Educational Foundation conference
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 18:21:43 -0500
Message-ID: <uflrtt0q05kmpbf36mqclsgt7uhie9vdae@4ax.com>
We have just spent the weekend in Cleveland, attending the Leo J. Ryan Educational Foundation conference. Almost everyone from the LMT attended, including Jesse Prince, Dee Phillips, Mark Bunker, Ingrid Wagner and board members Ed Lottick with his wife Sally, Duncan Pierce and Rod Keller. We missed Jeff Jacobsen and Heather Bennett, but they both sent their best wishes. The whole Woodcraft family came -- Astra, Zoe, Lawrence and Kate -- and it was great to see them again. One of the best things was that we finally got to see Tory again, the first time since last February. It was also wonderful to see Ida Camburn and to have a chance to spend time with her. It was so good to have a chance to see everyone from the Leo J. Ryan Foundation, who understand probably better than anyone else what it is like to be in the sights of this heat-seeking missile called Scientology. They welcomed us warmly and we all felt that we were among good friends. Some of these people were: Priscilla Coates, who helped me more than anyone else to recover from my experience in Scientology; Ron Burks and Paul Martin, who have helped so many people at Wellspring; everyone on the board of LJREF; LJREF's executive director Julia Bronder, and many others. On Saturday morning we held two panel discussions about Children in Scientology. Those on the panel included Astra, Zoe and Lawrence Woodcraft and Tory Bezazian. They all did a great job, and we will have a video up on our web site soon so that everyone can see it. On Saturday night Priscilla presented Bob Minton with the Leo J. Ryan award. I have already posted a transcript of the presentation and Bob's acceptance remarks in a separate post. I was extremely proud to see him receive such an honor from the organization that has been working longer than anyone else in the country to resolve the cult problem. Some of the people who have been honored in the past include Robert Lobsinger, Bill and Lorna Goldberg, Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, Congressman Howard Lasher, Dr. Louis Jolyn West, Dr.
John Clark, Dr. Ronald Enroth, Dr. Margaret Singer, Patricia Ryan, and Cynthia Kisser. It was an incredible honor for Bob to be included in this list of heroes. Perhaps the most important aspect of the weekend was the chance for all of us to spend some time together. Dave Touretsky flew up for a few hours on Sunday night to have dinner with all of us, and it was great to see him. We all sat at a long table and spent hours just talking together. The Woodcrafts, Tory and I had an intriguing and very therapeutic conversation about some of our experiences in Scientology. I just want to say that I love the Woodcrafts and Tory and I am so proud of what they have all done. Several Scientologists attended the conference, including Gerard Renna, Carol Yingling, Sue Taylor and Mary DeMoss. On Saturday night they passed out copies of Teresa Summers' letter to me, and David Cecere's private letter to the LMT board. (This was a letter from perhaps two months ago. David and I have since spoken several times and I have corrected some of the information in his letter.) They also distributed fliers about Bob Minton and, on Sunday morning, copies of a donation check Bob Minton wrote to the Leo J. Ryan Educational Foundation in July, 2001. (This check was obtained as a result of a subpoena to the Bank of America in Clearwater for all of Bob's bank records.) As we all boarded our planes this morning, we promised to get together again as soon as we can. We all left with a renewed determination to continue our work to expose Scientology's abuse and deception, and to help as many of the victims of Scientology as we possibly can. Stacy
