Incarcerated Re-entry Center residents raise money to send 125 kids to South Bend Symphony

South Bend native Jason Wilder has been incarcerated for more than half of his life.

The 44-year-old was arrested when he was 21 and has been in the prison system ever since. Next year, at age 45, he will finally be free, but for now, Wilder calls the South Bend Community Re-Entry Center home.

He said he feels a much greater sense of freedom in the Re-Entry Center than he has at any other facility in which he has been incarcerated.

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The Re-Entry Center houses about 180 residents, all men within the last 12 months of their prison sentences. Some residents have been incarcerated for six months, while others are finishing sentences that are over two decades long, Re-Entry Center Warden Charles Bowen said. All residents hold jobs ― some inside the facility and others out in the community ― and can participate in educational and self-improvement opportunities. Wilder currently works full time for the Suzuki Motor Corporation.

During Christmastime last year, Wilder and some other Re-Entry Center residents even got to experience the South Bend Symphony Orchestra.

For about the past year, SBSO Board of Directors Vice President Marvin Curtis and the orchestra's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee have provided tickets for 15-to-30 Re-Entry Center residents to attend SBSO performances with a chaperone. Curtis said many of the men are in their 40s, 50s and 60s but have never seen an orchestra live.

"So, this art, this music, this theater, they love it," Curtis said. "They come in dressed like anybody else … and you would not know they were incarcerated."

Many of the men have been so moved by the music that they decided to raise money to allow youth in the community to experience the SBSO as well.

By collecting money earned from their jobs, the Re-Entry Center residents raised over $1,500 in about one week, allowing them to reserve 125 tickets for local low-income youth and their families to attend the orchestra's performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 ― which features the 19th-century composer’s famous “Ode to Joy” chorus ― on Saturday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. The residents even raised an additional $500 to pay for a pizza party for the kids before the concert.

Youth and their families interested in attending the concert can reserve free tickets by calling the SBSO office at 574-232-6343.

Finding 'order and peacefulness'

This isn't the first time residents at the Re-entry Center have partnered with a local art organization. In August 2018, South Bend Civic Theatre gave two performances of "Topdog/Underdog" at the Re-Entry Center. That led to many of the men at there to volunteer at the theater building sets and to some minor roles for a few. Eventually, Civic staged a play written by one of the volunteers from the Re-Entry Center.

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Wilder said he hopes experiencing the orchestra will show kids that they can "take a different path" in life.

"It's my hope that the kids can buy into it and see the good guys, so that they can aspire to grow up to be a good guy themselves," he said. "For myself, when I was coming up, I looked up to the drug dealers … because that's all I saw. We looked at those guys as heroes, but we had skewed vision. So to be in a place where we can have people that are actually doing the right thing and not afraid to stand out is outstanding."

Wilder added his experience at the orchestra’s Christmas show reminds him of a lesson he hopes to teach youth in the community.

“Before they actually started the show, there were a lot of people practicing, and it’s kind of like chaos,” he recalled. “Then, when the conductor got there and ‘tap, tap, tap,’ everybody came to a point, and everything was beautiful. So you can take that … and speak to a kid. You know, before, this was your life, all this chaos and noise, but, once you find some kind of mentorship, you find some type of order and peacefulness.”

For Darin Williams, another Re-Entry Center resident, raising money for the tickets is not only about helping youth in the community but also about redefining himself.

"Let's face it, once you get to prison, your name is kind of tarnished," he said. "So, doing these kinds of things and being known for doing something positive, as opposed to for being imprisoned … is personal when you walk in this place."

Resident Christopher Whirl hopes that attending the performance will show kids that people care about them. He said he hopes the experience touches the kids' lives in a way he wishes his life had been touched as a child.

SBSO executive director Justus Zimmerman praised the Re-Entry Center residents for their generosity.

"When you invite people to a concert, you hope that the concert has an impact on their lives, that's why we do this," Zimmerman said. "I think the Re-Entry guys reaching out and wanting to pay it forward to invite more people to concerts, especially kids who may not otherwise have that experience, is definitely proof of the positive impact of the concerts and the music on their lives."

Zimmerman added the concert is an especially exciting opportunity for the kids because Beethoven nights tend to be the SBSO's most popular shows. In fact, they usually sell out.

Because the tickets are for kids, "we're subsidizing all these tickets to a concert that we could have sold for full price," Zimmerman said. "But Beethoven's ninth symphony, the 'Ode to Joy,' is based on a poem by (Friedrich) Schiller about how all men are created equal, all people are created equal … and that's what the Re-Entry guys are saying, 'We want all people to feel welcome in the concert hall.'"

Email Tribune staff writer Claire Reid at cereid@gannett.com.

In concert

• Who: The South Bend Symphony Orchestra

• Where: Morris Performing Arts Center, 211 N. Michigan St., South Bend

• When: 7:30 p.m. April 1

• Cost: $84-$12.

• For more information: Call 574-235-9190 or visit morriscenter.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Incarcerated men raise funds to send low-income kids to the symphony