May 6th and 7th were record-breaking days for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors. On May 6th, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors kicked off The Big Payback with a screening and panel discussion of the mini-documentary She’s an American Child.  

“Filmmaker Rafael DeLeon does a beautiful job of depicting the love and connection between mother and daughter as well as highlighting the stress and uncertainty immigrants are facing related to the pending DACA changes,” said Board Member Alyssa Curran, who attended the event.

The entire TNJFON staff, several board members and volunteers launched 14 personal campaign pages using the user-friendly platform available to anyone who wanted to raise funds for a local non-profit on the Big Payback website.  

“Most of our donors were local friends, but with social media sharing of the campaigns coming from Tennessee, Illinois and Pennsylvania, we drew new donors from all around the country who wanted to show their support for our immigrant neighbors,” said Executive Director, Tessa Lemos Del Pino. “We had some very creative campaigns, including the ‘Feed My Miles’ campaign by our Assistant Director of Outreach and Education.”   

Alvaro Manrique Barrenchea took over the TNJFON Instagram account for the day as he rode his bike for 50 miles along the Natchez Trace. Along the way, he checked in with donors and thanked them for their contributions to keep the energy of the big day going.

As the end of the Big Payback approached, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors had raised $9,950 from 117 donors in 24 hours,  which was more than the combined Big Payback campaigns for 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Upon hearing news of how close Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors was to reaching its $10,000 goal, one of the board members texted Tessa Lemos Del Pino letting her know he was making a donation to close the gap.

Thank you for helping Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors continue providing affordable and exceptional legal services to immigrants.