Do1Thing Blog

Rocky writer James Meadow, a gifted storyteller passed away Sunday night of injuries sustained in a bicycle accident Friday. James was a true wordsmith and had a gift for storytelling. His unique style brought sparkle to whatever subject he was writing about.

One of the last stories he wrote was about homeless teens Michael and Leah featured in the Do1Thing project. James and photojournalist Judy DeHass document these teens struggle to survive. You can read the story here.

Many of us never met James personally yet all of us were moved by his story about Michael and Leah.

You can also view the video of Michael and Leah on out multimedia page. The video is called Denver:Boundless Promise of Love.

Not long after The Rocky Mountain News ran the story, the newspaper folded leaving hundreds of journalist out of work and a city left without a Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper with a magnificent 150 year history. Two Pulitzer-prize winning photographers who donated their time to shoot for the project, Judy DeHaas and Preston Gannaway both lost their jobs. Judy was fortunate to be hired by the Denver Post and Preston by the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk. Just weeks ago the Virginian-Pilot announced yet another round of layoffs.

Several other photographers and journalist lost their jobs when their newspapers folded or layoffs took place during and soon after the Do1Thing project launched. None of them question why they spent hour after hour documenting the plight of homeless teenagers, all volunteering their time to do so. You see, we are storytellers. This is what we do. We document history and are compelled to share it.

We believe that regardless of todays economic climate or the nations propensity to want to know more about what million dollar movie stars, overpaid athletes and crooked ceo’s are doing than helping to change the world we all live in, we at Do1Thing will continue to document the injustices and social dilemmas facing Americas youth. That’s one thing you can count on.

As for James, our words can not comfort his families tremendous loss. We want him to know that because of the story he wrote about homeless teens for the Do1Thing project, he did yet 1 more thing to raise awareness for a great social injustice and we hope that you all will be moved to Do1Thing to help.

As a tribute to you James, we urge all of you to got to “I Want My Rocky”, leave a note for James’s family and show your support for the journalists who refuse to let the Rocky Mountain News die.

The thoughts and prayers of the Do1Thing community are with his family and friends and the more than 1.3 million homeless youth struggling to survive. Here’s to you James.

Judy (Walgren) DeHaas, 45, graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in Journalism in 1986. She took her first job in Odessa, Texas, with the Odessa American in 1987. Three months later, the Dallas Morning News hired her, where she worked until March 1999, covering socially relevant issues at home and abroad, such as immigration, war and famine, peace and reconciliation, and poverty throughout the world.

Judy was part of a team of journalists for the Morning News that received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their series on violent human rights abuses against women worldwide. For the series, she was the first person to photograph a female genital mutilation ceremony in Somalia and the News was the first newspaper to publish photos about the practice. Her book about the Lost Boys of southern Sudan was published in September 1998 by Houghton-Mifflin.

From 1999 to 2004, Judy based herself in Taos, New Mexico, and worked as a freelance photographer for publications such as Texas Monthly, National Geographic Traveler, People Magazine, and The New York Times. She traveled the world shooting promotional photos for the Peace Corps’ recruiting campaign, contributed to Peter Jennings’s last book, In Search of America, co-directed a film on tribal elders in Kenya and produced and shot a documentary film about the Quechua-speaking people in Peru.

Among her other achievements are: an Award of Excellence from the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, The Harry Chapin World Hunger Award, The Barbara Jordan Award for reporting on people with disabilities, the APME Photojournalism Award and the AMPE Sweepstakes Award for her series dealing with immigrants and refugees in Dallas, the Headliners Award for her work in Southern Sudan and the Texas Council Against Violence Award for her work with abused women, several Colorado Press Association, Colorado Associated Press, and Colorado Association of Black Journalists awards, a Communication Arts Award of Excellence and several American Photography Awards.

In 2004, Judy joined the staff at the Rocky Mountain News, where she works as a multimedia photographer, editor, producer, and writer, working with various cameras and software platforms. She lives in Denver with her husband Peter and their two sons, Theo, 2, and Hans, 14.
Visit Judy’s site