Grieving mother creates legacy of scholarships and works with Handbags 4 Peace to give self-defense training to honor slain daughter

 By January 19th of 2015, the 1st anniversary of her death, we had raised the $25,000.00 needed to endow a scholarship, and by that fall semester, had enough over that they could award the first scholarship. Originally I had specified that it be for sustainable architecture, but by then, the Philadelphia University Architecture department had chosen that their whole focus going forward would be sustainable architecture. They asked if instead it could be used to help young architecture majors afford a semester in Rome- a semester that had a profound influence on Amber. So of course I said yes...

Planting Daffodils!

Donate to the Amber Long
 '11 Scholarship Fund at Philadelphia University

One Inspiration leads to another...

One of the events held every spring in Philadelphia is the Street clean up- a day when neighborhoods come together to clean up the places they share. In 2014, many people chose to instead clean up North Front Street, the place where Amber was killed.
I wasn't able to attend that day- I didn't really understand, truth be told, how important it was, or I would have been- but they gave me a memory book, with thoughts and wishes from the participants. They did an amazing job, finishing up by painting big yellow flowers all along the underpass- to honor my sunshine girl. One of the quotes from the book, from an ex-coworker, "Amber.. was a force for positive change in our office and our city. She came to work each day ready to pitch in & support her team. She is a model for how we can all live our lives to make the world better. I hope to keep her spirit alive by being more like her in the actions I take & work I do in the future." Another wrote:
"I didn't know Amber and I'm terribly sorry for how abruptly her life was ended.
But I think it says something about what a special person she must have been to have inspired such a huge community effort in her honor."
When I heard what they had done, well, of course I cried, but I told someone that the only thing that could have made it better was if they had been live flowers for the girl who was oh so green. That thought took root, but it took longer to flower...
With a lot of help from Leanne Phillips, we eventually arranged to plant daffodils in Amber's memory at Philadelphia University.
I provided 1000+ mixed daffodil bulbs, and put the word out on Facebook. I thought it might take all day, and the University promised that they would have the ground ready for us, and finish any planting necessary. The grounds keeper had the holes all dug, and they provided everything- even tee-shirts! We had such a wonderful turn-out, that late comers (at 11 a.m.) had nothing to do. And the young lady next to me? The 1st recipient of the Amber Long "11 Scholarship.

Surveillance Video of Last Minutes Of Amber's Life

Fatal purse-snatchings prompt educational class for women

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Remembering Amber with Good Food & Friends

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Saturday's event was wonderful! Thank you so much for coming- I understand they sold about 75 tickets! Organized by Chris Woodson at the National Mechanics Bar & Grill, the event was supposed to run 4-9 p.m. It got off to a slow start, which was a very good thing, since the Schuylkill 'Expressway' was it's usual fabulous river of brake lights, and I was still on it at a quarter of 4. But Leanne Philips and many other awesome people were there to give me a hand, and once we figured out what we had to work with and how it could go, we had Amber's art beautifully displayed by 4:30. As more people started to arrive it was wonderful to be able to show it off and tell the stories behind the work. Many of the people there knew Amber through work, or pool league, or socializing- this was their first glimpse of another side to her. One guy told me that he'd seen her sketching at times, but had no idea she could do anything like this.It was heart warming to see the reactions, awe in some cases, at the incredible level of detailing and sense of depth. I spoke to an artist who was a friend of a friend, she never met Amber, but she bought a print of the Stone Arch, to inspire her. All in all, the art sales raised about $1000 for the Amber Long '11 Scholarship!