The Slumber Party From HellWhat happens to a successful woman when her world falls apart and she is faced with betrayal, breast cancer, and prison? What happens when her pain is unimaginable and her choices look bleak.When all this happened to Sue Ellen Allen, she chose to turn her pain into power. The death of Gina, her young roommate, coupled with an atmosphere of darkness and negativity, led her to find her passion and purpose behind the bars. Her experience of cancer, prison, and Gina’s death is an inspirational story of courage, wisdom, and choices.Sue Ellen Allen is a contradiction in appearance. Former University of Texas grad, former educator, former business owner, former community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison…current activist. She serves as chief visionary for GINA’s Team, an organization that brings educational programs and speakers into prison to inspire and empower the inmate population to strive for a better future and a successful reentry. GINA’s Team is named for her prison roommate who died there of medical neglect. Gina’s death was the defining moment of Sue Ellen’s journey, giving her life a new purpose and passion. In prison, under harsh conditions, she survived advanced breast cancer and learned to turn pain into power. She also learned that not all prisons are behind bars and that every journey has a purpose. Overcoming incredible odds, she found her purpose and now works with prison officials, legislators, and interns from Arizona State University to serve the forgotten population behind bars so that upon their re-entry to society, they will join our community as positive, contributing members. The author of The Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about her prison journey, Sue Ellen was awarded the Dawson Prize in Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center. Her writing was also included in Serving Productive Time by Tom & Laura Lagana, authors of Chicken Soup for the Prisoner’s Soul. Additionally, many of her poems have been published in Cosmopolitan magazine.Everyone has a story. No matter who you are and what your circumstances, you have a story and you have the power to use that story to help someone else. Sue Ellen believes we must take the pain, the grief, the fear, and the anger from our stories and turn them into power. Turn the pain into power…power to help others who are lost or hopeless or terrified or angry, power to comfort and love. If you’ve been there and you’ve done that, you are the perfect person to help the next one in line. Live the motto:Been there. Done that. Now how can you help?
