Today is December 4, 2023 and I turned 60 years old today. I never felt so challenged and yet so alive and encouraged as this moment. I will surrender to federal prison camp on April 5, 2024. I’m becoming a full-time student of the system, and it is amazing what I have learned.
When someone breaks the law as I did there are consequences and assurances. The consequences are loss of freedom, restitution, and shame. The assurance is to the community and the government that I am harmless and a contributing member of society. To that extent, I share my story.
I was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, 25 miles north of Boston in an area referred to as the North Shore by the locals. My mom was a single mother of 4 boys. I was the middle child with one older and two younger brothers. From age 3 to 12 my mother was married to my stepfather who was abusive to her, my brothers and I all the yrs. they were married. They separated several times over a 9-year period. She kept going back as it was nearly impossible for her to support her family. When my mom made the final break, she held a full-time job and 2 part time jobs, and it was still a struggle. My mother never smoked, never did drugs and she did not drink.
My grandparents were also local. They paid for my drum lessons and would take me often for day trips to the beach and sleepovers during my mother’s second marriage and after her divorce. We celebrated family holidays together and I was given stability.
When I was in 7th grade, I had an epiphany that changed my life and gave me the resolve to escape the embarrassment and stigmatism of being on the lower end of the economic scale, something I had no control over at the time.
Students who could not afford school lunch were given a paper punch card to show at the cashier. I hated having to use that lunch ticket especially if I was with a girl I liked or other kids that may have not had the same problem. Some days I would skip lunch because I did not want to deal with the pressure. I figured out that if I volunteer to work behind the counter as a lunch server, I will receive a daily Lunch as well as being paid a few bucks a month. I was 12 years old. After I received my first paycheck that I earned myself, my outlook on life was different from that date forward.
I started working full time in my senior year of high school. I attended a vocational high school and enrolled in a co-op program attending school one week and then working full time the next was the curriculum.
I was always the hardest worker, showing up early and going the extra mile by staying late if there was a rush job that needed to be finished. By age 21 I became the youngest manager out of 1200 locations for a national printing franchise. I was fortunate enough that my boss Russ paid for me to take college level business management courses at night. In 1989 when I was 25 years old and started a landscaping business with the $2,000 I saved and a matching loan from my grandmother. I grew that business to 35 employees with locations in Salem and Framingham, MA.
Marriage was about a desire to settle down and start a family over anything else. Marriage and having children checked a box as one of my lifelong goals which was the wrong motivation. After years of mutual unhappiness, I left our jointly owned home in Ipswich, MA and started the divorce process in February of 2004. From that date I been my children’s primary caregiver and always provided them with a place to call home.
The responsibility of being the breadwinner as well as providing a safe, normal upbringing and memorable childhood for them was both rewarding and extremely challenging. I’m very proud of both Dana and Dante and the adults they have become. It is often painful to see them go through this thing we call life with its occasional curve ball thrown at you. Understanding life is made up of strikes and gutter balls that are all opportunities to grow and learn. Every life circumstance is a learning opportunity to become a better person, understanding how to look at my faults and making amends for any harm I have caused is both gratifying and freeing.
Beginning early in my career I have always been engaged in and received great satisfaction by helping others and trying making a difference. I provided jobs and opportunities to many over a 25-year period. As I think back to at one point having 35 employees my decisions were based heavily on the idea that a group of misfits and dreamers would be better workers. If I was hiring, I would give pretty much anyone that applied for a job a chance. I employed my friends, family, and those in my orbit. This cost me tens of thousands of dollars over the years, and I have no regrets. Like everything in life, it is a trap to look back and dwell on the past, but it is important to learn from it. I can’t count how many times I had to track down and retrieve a company vehicle after a person didn’t show up. This was before GPS tracking was a thing. Again, I have no regrets. I’ll stop short of saying if I had to do it all over, I would do it the same way.
The most skilled and diligent workers where the many immigrants I employed that came here from Guatemala. That demographic has a much deeper work ethic than Americans such as college age men by example. They would always be on time or early and put in an honest day’s work. As my landscaping business was winding down in 2008, I passed on to one of my long time Spanish employees my customer list and set him up for success. Celso and I still touch base every few years and I’m proud to say in expanded his business to a retail garden center and is doing great.
It took years for me to learn and understand that ultimately if a person does not believe in themselves, the person they really are and does not have a positive outlook which comes from having a plan, the chances of that person being successful are all but non-existent.
In 2001 I had the opportunity to travel with a group of doctors and non-medical volunteers like myself to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to perform free surgeries for patients with Clef lip, cleft palate and facial deformities. My primary duties were first as quarter master, I made sure the team was taking care of, that they had all the supplies needed so they could do their job. I interacted with the patients at a high level, in pre-op and bringing them to and from surgery. I was available to anyone on the team to help and had a spiritual connection with my team members. The experience changed me forever in a very profound way. I started talking stock of my life and what I wanted to Be about as a human in the world.
I returned to Santa Cruz, Bolivia in 2004 and then went to LaOroya, Peru in 2005. These missions were extremely emotional on every level. I met many lifelong friends and changed many lives. In 2004 I filed for divorce after starting down the path that leads to finality in 2001 when I came back from my first medical mission. My outlook on life and understanding of the world changed. I looked at the world with different lenses. When I saw the expression on a mother’s face when I handed back her infant child that had facial reconstruction surgery, the world was a little bit smaller and any problems that I had were non-existent in that moment.
I can recall many instances and circumstances that made a profound impact on my life and will share them as a journal my life in the coming months and years. One of those that is a special memory was a small girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old that had no nose. Her face was flat and her nostrils were exposed. It was not a pretty site to look at and her mother kept her mostly out of the public. The doctors came here prepared for cleft lip and palate surgeries and there is nothing the doctors on the team could do for her on this trip. I was very upset and starting advocating for this little girl. Afterall, she was about to start school and with nothing being done to change her appearance she would be shunned. One of the team members, a Dentist from Argentina every patient saw her before and after surgery. My job was to bring the patients into see her and became fast friends based on a sense of purpose.
We were brainstorming ideas to somehow help this little girl. Her specialty was in dental acrylics. We came up with the idea if I can find the right material, she can make her a prosthetic nose. I spent two days driving around Santa Cruz and was determined not to disappoint. I finally located the acrylic, some wax for a mold and a pair of children glasses with clear lenses. As I was walking back into the hospital, I saw Dr. G. and she could not believe it when I told her I was able to locate the needed supplies. In that moment she said, “Now we need a model to make a wax mold”. I located a patient about the same age and took an impression of his nose in wax. From that a prosthetic nose was made, attached to the glasses and the little girl could now go to school and live a somewhat normal life. This is an example of my life’s purpose and I never lost sight of that. I have been blessed in many ways and have forged friendships with people across the globe.
I have had successful businesses and businesses that have failed. I raised my two children from pre-school age through adulthood by myself. Over the 20 years since I first separated, I have had off-and-on relationships but never went so far as having a live-in girlfriend or blending families. I’m comfortable in my own skin and when the timing and circumstances are right, I’m sure I will meet someone. Until then, I’ll just stay happy and grateful.
Shortly after I completed my 1 st of 3 medical missions with a well-known non-profit to Bolivia and Peru I was invited to Romania by another nongovernmental organization (NGO) to plan and oversee the installation of soccer field at an orphanage outside of Bucharest. The Rotary Field of Dreams would become the first soccer field in Romania to have an in-ground irrigation system. After 5 trips over a few years period, I made many friends and was able to sponsor more than a few now former orphans to come to the USA. Every time I visited Romania I was greeted and treated like family and made several lifelong friends. I had no problem helping anyone who desires a better life in the United States. Some arrived, stayed, got married and started careers. Others came, stayed for awhile and went back to a life more familiar.
Not My World: The first few days post arrest were a whirlwind, emotional and otherwise. My face was all over the news and at that moment, I had no idea what the coming days would bring. For the first time in a long time, I felt scared.
I knew conceptually it was important to resume life as I know it, while awaiting and preparing for what was at that time a pending Federal Trial. I could have remained on the floor in the fetal position as I did literally the day after I was arrested, or I could rise above it. I was being portrayed and looked at as low-life scum by the court system and the media. They know nothing about my life and nothing about how I carry myself and contribute to the world. That is not their job.
The night before the FBI came in full riot gear to arrest me, I put the final touches on a short-animated film that I wrote, directed, and produced. “I Knew Superman” went on to win 19 film festivals. The short film was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Short Form (animated) and one of 83 shorts that qualified for the 2022 Oscars. This all happened over the course of the preceding 9 months following my May,4 2021 arrest. I was released within a few hours of my arrest and within a few weeks the feeling that I was less of a person or worse the person the government was portraying me as was not accurate. Based on a true story, the short film carries a twofold message about single parenthood and a reminder about a American student named Otto, that went to North Korea and met his ultimate demise. We will never forget Otto. Here is a link to the short 9-minute film.
https://danacrypto.com/i-knew-superman-film-1
I have many other ideas and will continue to make short films that have a message and impact.
I have several medical challenges including a recent full hip replacement, degenerative disease, and a high risk for respiratory infections. I’m grateful I’m able to receive adequate and ongoing treatment from Grace Cottage hospital, Dartmouth Hospital Pain Clinic and Brattleboro Sports Medicine and Orthopedics. My doctors concluded that dealing with my medical condition is life long and if not monitored and kept in check the chances of a catastrophic event are likely. I live by myself in rural Vermont with the closest neighbor ½ mile away and able to maintain a somewhat normal day to day routine. Working from home will be a necessity and I’m exploring a few different opportunities that will allow me to be self-sufficient without any Government assistance besides health care.
My time in the prison system will be productive and I look forward to satisfying my obligations to the government and continuing to write the story of my life. Please visit PrisonProfessorsTalent.com to read my journal and release plan that I regularly update as I start my journey thru the Federal Prison System. Watch and observe how I come out on the other side of this temporary life situation a better, stronger, and wiser human being who is giving back to the world in an extraordinary and compelling way.
Respectfully,
Dana McIntyre
