UVa's Rocco, Tech's Thomas write letters to prisoners

LYNCHBURG — Ready or not, Michael Rocco and Logan Thomas are becoming famous — at least in the part of the world that cares about University of Virginia or Virginia Tech football.

Both the Hokies and Cavaliers played in bowl games at the end of last season. And as the starting quarterbacks, Rocco and Thomas are the faces of those two teams.

“A little kid came up to me at a basketball game last night,” said Liberty Christian Academy graduate Rocco on Saturday, “and asked me to autograph his miniature ball.”

“I try to wear baggy clothes for a disguise,” added Thomas, a product of Brookville High School, “but it doesn’t work.”

Not at 6-foot-6 and 260 pounds.

On the other hand, the two athletes — both sophomores — have embraced the idea of being role models. That’s why they were seated at a long table in the office of Interfaith Outreach in Lynchburg on Saturday afternoon, helping a group of teenage volunteers stuff envelopes with letters to area prisoners.

“It’s not just your parents who raise you,” Thomas said. “Your community raises you, too. You have to give back to it.”

His mother, Kim Tarazona, has worked with Interfaith Outreach as a volunteer, as has Rocco’s mom, Leslie. Leslie Rocco is especially interested in the group’s Progressive Release program, designed to keep jail inmates from returning to prison. The personalized letters being stuffed Saturday are a large part of that.

“We’ve gone from five or six letters a month to over 300,” said Roger Paul, who heads up the Progressive Release program. “It started with the Blue Ridge Regional Jail (just two blocks from Interfaith Outreach), and has since spread to the regional jail in Amherst and a couple of other places.”

According to Paul and Interfaith Outreach’s director, Shawne Farmer, the organization offers released inmates rides, helps them find temporary shelter and works with them on regaining employment.

“And we teach a life skills class, for both men and women who are incarcerated,” Farmer said.

In addition, Interfaith Outreach has programs designed to help low-income residents facing utility cutoffs and supply them with donated furniture. Farmer said the organization has made attracting more volunteers — of all ages — a 2012 priority.

“That’s partly because we have a small staff and need help, and partly to expose people in the community to our programs,” Farmer said. “It’s such a tremendous help to have these volunteers in here today. All the time that’s saved doing this mailing is time that can be spent on outreach and teaching life skills classes.”

Many of the recipients of those letters, Paul added, “have burned their bridges, alienated their families, lost the friends they thought they had. The letters we send are letters of encouragement, trying to show them that someone cares.”

Even a couple of quarterbacks.

Laurant reports for The News & Advance in Lynchburg.