Reaction to homeless woman who graduated from Essex County College graduation

I wrote about Toni Clark (http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/newark_woman_graduates_essex_c.html) who attended Essex County College while she was homeless, and graduated with an Associates Degree in education on June 5.

Since then, I've received a lot of feedback, including the following email and poem that captures the sentiment of most folks who were inspired by this woman's story:

Hi Mr. Ortega

I read your article about Ms. Clark and was so touched that I put in up on my office bulletin board for everyone to read. From the CEO to the warehousemen in the company, everyone was inspired from one woman's story of accomplishment. One gentleman @ my job was very moved and touched that he wrote a poem for her:

Homeless not Hopeless

This is story about a woman who had a dream
She felt she had to do it by herself because she didn't have a team
Homeless, jobless, down on her luck.
Instead of giving out, she decided to look up.
Asking her heavenly Father to please help her through it
Without his strength and love, she knew she couldn't do it
Faith, hard work and determination is how she finally made it
Guess what, on June 5th, 2009 she actually graduated
There is a moral to this story
And I hope you will all receive it
Anything is possible if you just believe it.
BY:Arthur deBose

Thank you for your wonderful story.....We all need to read about someone attaining their dreams.

Nicole Dudek

One note to add to this. One of my editors did a great job tightening the focus of this story. He let me sit with him as he read through it and made changes, line by line. This is my favorite kind of edit, because of the opportunity to learn and improve my writing.