“Dear Gems for Gems,

I’d like to thank everyone at Gems to Gems for this opportunity to be part of a charity that offers a new beginning to survivors of domestic abuse. Giving scholarships to these women, who can only be described as warriors, means they have a chance to educate themselves and change their lives forever.

My Jessica would have loved to be a part of a program such as this. She loved to help people and she herself would have benefitted from it too. This is an opportunity to be the strong women that you know you can be, to inspire others, and to live in the freedom you were always meant to have. Gems to Gems is just the beginning of a lifetime of possibilities!

To the survivor who receives the Jessica Newman Memorial Scholarship,

I wish for you much success. You have already accomplished the most difficult part of your journey and your education is just the next step. You have my prayers for success and a lifetime of happiness.

Sincerely,

Jessica’s Mom, Rhonda”

Gems for Gems now has a successful record of issuing scholarships to survivors of domestic abuse, having them graduate and move forward utilizing their education to create a new and sustainable life for themselves and their children.

One of the important elements of this scholarship program is that we remain grounded in the reason for its existence. For this reason, and to continue the legacy of those taken, we name each scholarship in memory of a woman who did not survive her abuse.

Jessica Newman is one such woman.

“After stabbing her 75 times, Rubletz dumped Newman’s body in a ditch near Balzac “to be left to the ravages of the elements, insects and scavenging elements,” said Poelman.

Newman was last seen in March 2015 and it was two months before her remains were discovered.

“Six agonizing weeks went by before they found Jessica in a ditch, tossed away as if she was nothing,” Newman’s mother, Rhonda Steward, said in her victim impact statement delivered Thursday.”

– https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kevin-rubletz-jessica-newman-murder-sentence-1.4558168

We remember, and we honour her memory with issuing this scholarship to a woman who is a survivor, a mother of young children and who has escaped. She is honoured and ready to take this huge gift as an opportunity to change the lives of her children, and herself, forever.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed to and supported Gems in our efforts to end the cycle of domestic abuse….

This is our why…

Sincerely,

Jordan

Founder/CEO, Gems for Gems