Restored Wings (Rejuvenating Women)

This year’s Restored Wings Gala will be held on September 10, 2020, 5:30 PM at Embassy Suites La Vista. We are offering in-person and virtual tickets to accommodate all! Your tax-deductible gift (minus the cost of each meal (for the in-person event) will help Rejuvenating Women to provide long-term restoration, recovery, and aftercare services in our community at no charge. The 2019 event drew 595 attendees and raised $140,550 for survivors of human trafficking. This next year’s needs are equally as great! Our Keynote Speaker is Cyntoia Brown-Long, a sex trafficking survivor who, at the age of 16, was convicted of the murder and robbery of Johnny Michael Allen. Brown said that Allen had paid $150 to have sex with him and that she feared for her life during their encounter, leading her to shoot him. Prosecutors argued that Brown killed Allen in order to rob him. Brown was found guilty and sentenced to 51 years to life. After renewed interest in her case in 2017, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam commuted her original sentence to 15 years, scheduling her for release on August 7, 2019. Her story is detailed in the 2011 documentary Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story and in her memoir, Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System.