January 30, 2008
Olds College News
Celebrated Speaker to Provide Free Afternoon Presentation
Lesra Martin will speak on March 14 at both the afternoon "Town Hall" and Gala Evening. The Town Hall is free and open to the public.
Lesra Martin, whose incredible life is featured in the movie The Hurricane, is sharing his story at a public presentation at Olds College on Friday March 14.
Martin will provide the Gala 2008 keynote address during the evening, but will arrive on campus earlier in the day to present a free afternoon Town Hall address to students, staff and neighbours from the community. He had been scheduled to visit Olds College in 2006 but plans were disrupted by a serious traffic accident.
As a 15-year-old, Martin was taken in by a group of idealistic Canadians who moved him from his home in New York to live with them in Toronto. Functionally illiterate at the time, Lesra began the process of learning to read.
Shortly after arriving in Toronto, Lesra purchased his first book at a used book sale. The 25 cents he spent changed his life, as the book outlined the life of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter who was 13 years into a triple life sentence for a crime he did not commit.
A friendship developed between the two men, beginning with letters and proceeding to phone calls and visits at Trenton State Prison in New Jersey. Lesra’s new Canadian friends joined him in the cause to free Carter from prison and after five years of tireless work, Carter was finally freed and cleared of all charges.
“It is really an incredible story, because since then Lesra Martin not only completed high school but he has also obtained his law degree from Dalhousie University,” says Wayne Keillor, a resident of Olds who is the volunteer chair of the Gala planning committee. “Education has the potential to impact everyone, and Lesra’s story is an inspiration to us all.”
Martin’s story became the subject of the bestselling book Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, which went on to become the popular movie starring Denzel Washington and directed by Norman Jewison. More recently, he is the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary The Journey of Lesra Martin.
The Town Hall event featuring Lesra is free and open to the public from 2:30 to 3:30 pm on Friday, March 14 in the Duncan Marshall Place Lecture Theatre at Olds College.
He will then be the featured keynote speaker at the “No Boundaries, No Limits” Gala later that evening. The annual Gala will draw over 340 guests for the sixth annual celebration.
For more information please contact:
Communications Coordinator, Rick Overwater (403) 507-7717, roverwater@oldscollege.ca
