For Peggy Smedley and Donnie Rickner, it all started with a smile. They met through a mutual friend who plays bass guitar. He and Donnie, who plays electric guitar, were in a band together, and when Donnie said he was ready to leave Gaylord, Michigan, where he’d been living, and start fresh somewhere else, the bass player let Donnie move in with him. Peggy happened to be staying at another friend’s house just across the road. The two met, and “His smile got me,” she says. They hit it off really quickly, and soon Peggy noticed more things about Donnie: “The witty charm that he’s got. Gracious personality. Gets along with pretty much everybody.” He’s “different,” she says. “And goofy.”
So Donnie left Gaylord for Traverse City, Michigan, where Peggy was born and raised and where she’s been living on the same property for 42 years. She loves life there – the weather and the water and the closeness of the community. “I know everybody,” Peggy says, “from Elk Rapids, Central Lake, Traverse, Charlevoix, Eastport, little town of Kewadin. Nice little area. Love everybody up here.” She and Donnie enjoy camping around the beaches and lakes. She’s a single mother of a 22-year-old and has been the primary caretaker of her own mother since her father passed away 15 years ago. Still, for Peggy and Donnie, “anything that we can do, we try to go and do,” she says.
Two years ago, she and Donnie moved into her grandmother’s house. The couple had a five-year plan, one that included them getting “married and everything.” But when Donnie was incarcerated, all of those plans were put on hold. “Kind of threw us for a loop,” Peggy says. “All it takes is one thing or one person that you think you can trust to not necessarily be your friend. Or somebody to accuse you of something, and it’s like, whoa, wait a second. Anything can happen.” Now Peggy and Donnie are looking at years before they can resume the life they were planning. Peggy says she’s looking forward to “just having him back home and getting our life back on track. Move forward with everything again.”
Level gives him something to keep his mind right and focus on. He said he’s been learning a lot with the different guides that he got so far. He said he’s learned things that even he, at 47, didn’t even know existed. He says he always gets excited when he gets a guide from Level.
– Peggy Smedley, sponsor of an incarcerated loved one
In the meantime, they’ve tried to find help for Donnie on the inside. His current facility offers some vocational programs, but it doesn’t have instructors or counselors to teach them. Peggy discovered Level online while she was looking up programs that Donnie could access while he was incarcerated. She saw Level was approved for his facility and asked him, “What do you think about doing something to learn something new?” He was all for it.
What Peggy appreciates about Level is that it keeps Donnie busy and “gives him something to keep his mind right and focus on. He said he’s been learning a lot with the different guides that he got so far. He said he’s learned things that even he, at 47, didn’t even know existed. He says he always gets excited when he gets a guide from Level. I’m like, ‘I got another one coming.’ He’s, like, ‘Oh, great! I can’t wait!’ This gives him something to look forward to, and it’s definitely something that gives him hope for getting out again.”
A future for Donnie on the outside is something Peggy and Donnie are already talking about. Donnie is a “jack of all trades,” she says. “He’s done construction for years. He’s done plumbing. Can paint, can build things. He was a roofer for years. And he wants to get back into construction and roofing.” When that happens, Peggy plans to work alongside him. “I know how to do a lot of construction things,” she says. “I’ve been self-taught by my grandparents and my parents. So I can frame, I can drywall, I can do all that stuff. We’ve redone a couple of people’s houses and rooms for them and stuff like that already, and I know we’ve got the work lined up from several people once he gets out.”
Peggy is one of only a few sponsors to support more than one learner on the inside. Although she’d never met this person before, the decision to enroll him was easy. “Hassan was Donnie’s bunkmate,” Peggy says. “Donnie was talking to him about Level, and he’d just read one of Donnie’s guides from Level and he asked Donnie, ‘You know, I don’t have anybody on the outside. Would there be a possibility that maybe Peggy would be willing to help me out and enroll me, so that way I could keep my head up and stuff on the inside?’ And Donnie really liked the guy and said, ‘Can we help and enroll him?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I don’t mind helping somebody else.’ We like to help everybody. I grew up that way in my small community up here, where you help everybody. If somebody needs help, you help them.”
