CASE FOUNDATION: Can you tell me about the youth parish community you've been forming, and the impact you and the youth have had on the community?

MS. MILLER: I've always had an interest in the welfare of children and youth. I worked for 18 years as a pediatric nurse with a focus on critical care. As I listened to families and youth over those 18 years, I sensed that our communities were missing something. We provided all sorts of extracurricular activities for children, many of them having a positive influence on the children as far as healthy living, sportsmanship, and basic values. But there didn't seem to be lot that would connect children with their spiritual values other than church services and basic religious education. I think most people would agree that it takes more than church on Sundays to enliven the spiritual values of our children.

What makes it harder is that we can't open a newspaper or turn on the television without being inundated with negative press. And it's not only found in the newspaper or on the television, it's in their music, their schools, sometimes even their home life. I see a culture of children and youth that is losing optimism for life and wanted to find a way to change that.

It didn't take long for the idea of theater to enter my mind. I was very involved in theater as a child, and it transformed my life in many ways. Kids love to be the center of attention, but with theater they get to express themselves and learn something about life at the same time. And hopefully, as they perform, the audience learns as well. I have always told the kids that what we do is far more than entertainment; it's about touching lives and hopefully changing them as well.

The hard part about what I do is finding the right material. I was actually quite surprised and disappointed at the lack of material available for theater groups trying to give the community a positive message. So, I began writing.

CASE FOUNDATION: A very ambitious goal.

MS. MILLER: It was a very ambitious goal, especially since it was something I had never done before. But I was blessed because I found a script that kind of gave me something of a base. It was called "Noelle, the First." It had beautiful music, but what I felt was a weak script for what I wanted to accomplish. So I wrote my own script and two new songs to go with the original music. And that was the beginning. One hundred twenty kids auditioned for the show, and what I initially thought was going to be a one time affair has grown into a beautiful ministry that reaches far beyond our faith community. I operate off the principle that this is not a Catholic theater group. This is a youth theater that accepts everyone, no matter what their faith or background.

CASE FOUNDATION: How did you reach out to the other community children to get them involved?

MS. MILLER: Advertisements, word of mouth. I have friends who belong to different faiths and churches, so I said, "Here, put this flier up in your church. Let people know about this." Our last production had kids from 15 different churches with all different faiths and backgrounds. We need to do this, not only to engage inter faith discussions, but also to reach out to the community as a whole. I am very fortunate that the church I belong to and that sponsors us, Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, in Parkton, Md., is very open and accepting of this idea. Father Nick Amato, who is the pastor, has opened his arms and embraced this ministry. He has done everything he can to support us in our endeavor to accomplish our goals. And the community has been just as responsive.

CASE FOUNDATION: Do you produce different plays each season?

MS. MILLER: We do two major productions a year, and sometimes benefits in between. In January 2006, the theater provided the entertainment for a benefit to assist a gentleman who was suffering from cancer. He was a homeless man who had previously been addicted to drugs and alcohol. He had been adopted by a family in our area, and had a tremendous amount of medical bills and no financial support. During our last musical, "Treasures of the Heart," we collected more than 50 boxes of canned goods for food banks, and $2,500 for grocery gift cards that were given to the hungry and to support two homeless shelters.

These are the connections I want to make. It is not just about acting on stage. It is about showing these kids that they can have optimism for their own life and can infuse that optimism into other people as well.

CASE FOUNDATION: Do they see the benefits of the work they do?

MS. MILLER: Yes, I believe they do. They have now started coming up with their own ideas of things we can do to help others, and that is what I want. I try to impress upon them that this is not my theater - it is their theater. I want them to own it, to make it their own. I include them as part of the leadership. As a matter of fact, I am meeting with some teens very soon to plan a benefit that will be a musical review of the shows we have performed to date, and we'll discuss the charity we want to highlight, the theme of the show, and the scenes they want to incorporate. This will be their show.

CASE FOUNDATION: Have you seen a lot of change in the children who are involved in the theater program?

MS. MILLER: I have. There is a young man who came to me a year ago as an atheist who now has hope, who now believes. He is not thumping any Bible, but that's okay. I wasn't at his age either, but just to have hope -- hope is such an important thing for life. It is a huge part of my life, considering my illness and everything I have gone through. I don't know what I would have done without hope.

CASE FOUNDATION: And you have done all of this while you have been under the stress of an illness?

MS. MILLER: Yes.

CASE FOUNDATION: How have those things affected your approach to the theater program and your work with the children?

MS. MILLER: Well, to be honest with you, my cancer is in the background of my life. The assault that occurred to me, I keep in the background of my life. I acknowledge them. I do everything I can to care for them, but I won't allow them to define me or to take a more significant role because I am more than just a woman living with cancer. I am more than a survivor of an assault. I am a wife, a mother, and hopefully a mentor and role model for our youth. I am a woman of faith with thoughts and spirit and values, and those define who I am far better than my disabilities, my illness, or my physical condition.

Sometimes it is hard for people in our society, who often define people by what job they hold or what kind of car they drive, to see beyond the bandanna I wear on my head. They see that and they think, "Look at that poor thing - she has cancer. Oh goodness, now she got assaulted, she has a head injury, and knee injury, and a broken wrist." It is all negative, but I don't show negative. At least I hope I don't come across that way. Don't say "poor thing," because I am a woman living my life the best way I know right now, and I have been blessed. True, cancer hampers it sometimes. Sometimes I am more tired, and it is more difficult to do some things. But what I do is a passion, and if anything, I think in some ways it may enhance the message.

CASE FOUNDATION: So in a way, you are a living example of what you are trying to accomplish.

MS. MILLER: I hope so. And kids need those types of role models. You can't preach it without living it, because kids will see right through that in a second. They are often a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

CASE FOUNDATION: Did they respond differently to you at any point during your work with them as a result of the assault, or do they step back and then look at you with fresh eyes? What is their perception?

MS. MILLER: They get emotional. I mean, these kids are my kids in every way. I truly love them, almost as if they were my own, and I know in some ways they feel the same for me. As a matter of fact, I am kind of known as "Mama Mary" -- they know that they can come to me with anything, and I will accept them for who they are.

But there are times that this has been very hard on them. This past fall during the production of "Treasures of the Heart." I was recovering from the assault and came back to rehearsals two weeks later. I was in a wheelchair. I was wearing casts and braces, with bruises on my face, but I was there. Some of these kids likened me to the "Energizer Bunny," because I keep going and going.

Going back to that rehearsal, I had known that I was going to be losing my hair any day. I don't believe in just springing this on the kids and just walking in bald. The kids know me. A lot of them have been involved in multiple productions, and this is the third year in a row I have lost my hair during the fall production. So they have seen it happen before, but I also knew that this might be different because they would see this as a sign that I was losing the battle, since this was the third time. So I didn't want to surprise them with it. I sat them down and talked to them. I told them that I would be losing my hair again, that I had started chemotherapy. Instantly, there were tears, among the parents and the kids because it was the end of rehearsal, so we had a lot of extra people around.

But I looked at them and said, "No. We are not going to be depressed about this. We are not going to be upset about this. We are going to celebrate!" They just kind of looked at me like, "what?" I explained, "We are going to celebrate this because there is something that can be done." There is still treatment available for me. We need to celebrate the fact that I am surrounded by doctors who can help me. That I am surrounded by a community that cares for me and is going to reach out and be there for me, which they have been time and time again, making meals and coming by for visits and taking me to doctors, whatever it is that I may have needed. So we need to celebrate.

CASE FOUNDATION: How did they react?

MS. MILLER: I had them doing a cheer. I remember a mother telling me that she was so amazed that, within minutes, I could transform the emotions in that room from despair to hope, but, again, that is what it is about. These kids need hope. I have hope, and I don't ever want to live without it.

CASE FOUNDATION: I understand that there was a homeless man that spoke to you one day when you were leaving your treatments. Can you tell me a little bit about what he said to you and how that affected you?

MS. MILLER: About a year ago, I had just had a very long day of doctor appointments and scans and a chemo treatment. So I am sure I looked tired and pale, and I was wearing a bandanna over my head. As I left the treatment center, a homeless gentleman walked straight toward me with a big smile on his face, saying, "God bless you. God bless you." I started looking around because he looked like he was talking to someone he knew, like a long lost friend, and I thought, "Who is he talking to? Is he talking to me?"

It soon became very obvious he was talking to me. When I turned back to him, it was interesting. I didn't see the homelessness anymore. It was just this beautiful smile and these piercing blue eyes, it was very powerful. He took the time, he held my shoulders, and said, "God bless you." It was amazing to me because it was obvious to me that this man, with all his struggles, felt that I needed blessings more than he did at that moment, and it was just so powerful and very, very touching.

CASE FOUNDATION: What was your reaction to that? In the coming days, did you think about that a lot? Did it begin to affect your approach to the theater or to your group? Did it stay with you?

MS. MILLER: It cemented my belief in things that I have always believed in. That the treasures in our hearts are far more valuable than the treasures in our hands. I see so many people who become bogged down with their troubles, or the pressure and stresses of life, that they don't' see the blessings that surround them. I believe there are blessings in everything.

I read this book once by I think it was by Patricia Livingston. It was called "This Blessed Mess." In this book she begins with two premises: life is filled with struggle, and struggle is filled with love. This gentleman was a pure example of that. He was struggling, but he was filled with love -- a love he shared with me. The love that we find in struggle, if we choose to, can lead to gladness, beauty, laughter, and hope.

Now, I know my struggles dim in comparison to many others, but within those struggles, I find blessings. Maybe it is new friendships, an inner peace, an improved awareness of God's presence in my life, a clearer understanding that not only is God with me, but more important, God is within me. People are missing out on so much when they don't search for those blessings, even amid the struggles, because they are there in each and every one of them.

CASE FOUNDATION: And how nice that you can share your message through your theater group and plays that you put on for your community.

MS. MILLER: It is a blessing. We are all blessed with gifts. We all have different things that we are good at. Theater happens to be one of the things that I am pretty good at. Writing is a newfound skill for me. When I got cancer, I needed something to keep my mind busy when my body was tired. But I didn't want to write just anything. I wanted to write something others would find helpful. I wanted to write something that might help inspire children to develop faith, kindness, compassion, and gratitude.

CASE FOUNDATION: Do you include a lot of your personal experiences in your plays, or do you draw from them?

MS. MILLER: I wouldn't say that they are my exact personal experiences. Some are, but most are about struggles we all experience at one time or another. But no matter what the struggle, I try to show the promise that lies inside, the message of hope and the message that life is about choices. We do have a choice about how we are going to handle every situation we come into. I choose to handle mine positively, and I hope our shows will help others do the same.

CASE FOUNDATION: That is a wonderful message.

MS. MILLER: It makes a huge difference in your own life and in the lives of the people around you. I hope and pray that I am able to positively affect the kids and other people I am surrounded by. I hope I can show them the infinite possibilities that are born of faith and hope. If I can do that, I will have accomplished a lot.

CASE FOUNDATION: It is contagious.

MS. MILLER: Yes, it is.

CASE FOUNDATION: So, by sharing your message with your church through the theater group and the community group, are you also reaching out to people within the broader community? Are you getting a lot of participants from the surrounding area?

MS. MILLER: Oh, definitely. We are getting kids from all over the place. In our last production, we had one cast member who traveled an hour each way to be in the show.

CASE FOUNDATION: Do they bring people to watch it as well?

MS. MILLER: Yes, they do. We have had people from Washington who come up and see the shows on a regular basis. We have several people who see one show and then come back again and again. I think that's an example of the hunger our society has for a message filled with hope.

Many of the kids I deal with are from middle class neighborhoods and have homes, food, clothing, and a good community. It's easy for them to get caught up in our little community and not realize what is going on outside of that. One of the things that theater does is allow these kids to "walk in someone else's shoes." I saw that so poignantly in "Treasures of the Heart," because the setting is a homeless shelter in Baltimore. About 65 of the kids on stage played homeless characters, and part of their preparation was doing some research to develop a character for themselves, to find out how someone had become homeless, and this was going to be their story on stage.

CASE FOUNDATION: They knew how to approach it.

MS. MILLER: Yes. They knew how to approach the show, and they knew how to approach their character. It gave kids experiences that they have never had before. It was an eye-opening and heart-opening experience for many of them. One of the messages we have in the show is that there is a big difference from wanting and needing. Most of the kids in our area have wants. They want an iPod, they want a car, they want the new Play Station 3. They don't need these things, but they want them. The characters they play in this show need things like shelter, food, and family.

The show incorporated many true stories of homeless people that I met on the streets and under bridges in Baltimore. One of them was a story about two young girls whose parents were killed. We all need those parents. It doesn't matter how old you are. I still need my mom and dad. That is something that is not going to be there for these girls.

Several parents have written to tell me that their children are giving up some of their Christmas gifts and instead giving to the shelter, or instead of having a birthday party, collecting soap and shampoo to bring to a homeless shelter.

CASE FOUNDATION: So you are seeing firsthand experiences about how these plays are transforming their viewpoints and how that is transforming into action?

MS. MILLER: For some, yes. A director I used to work with used to say, "The key to successful theater is to inspire belief." I add to that. I believe the key to successful theater is to inspire belief, motivate change, and encourage action. You can inspire belief, but to make a meaningful difference, you need those two other pieces.

When I look at this show, for example, as far as inspiring belief, how I measure that is did we inspire people to believe that the treasures they hold in their heart are more valuable than those they hold in their hand? Did we inspire people to believe that there are blessings in their struggles, that God is there for them, no matter where they are in life? Did we encourage them to change? Did we encourage them to have a change of heart, to look at maybe how their faith impacts the choices that they make in life? Did we encourage them to change the way they think about wanting and needing? And did we motivate action? Did we motivate people to explore simple ways in which they can give their time or talents or treasures to improve their community?

CASE FOUNDATION: You gave some examples of children who have done that. Have you seen the community respond in a similar fashion?

MS. MILLER: Yes. We received letters from people who are sharing exactly how we have done that. A gentleman wrote saying that his whole life was about wanting. He said he has never had any experiences where he has actually suffered. He was born to an affluent family, has lived an affluent life, and has always had the best cars, the best clothes, the best home, but despite always having the best of everything, he still looked at who had the bigger house, the newer car. He added that , "It had nothing to do with improving upon myself. It had to do with improving upon the materialistic things that I own."

Another gentleman had put a deposit on a new Mercedes, and after seeing the show, he scratched the idea because the car he had was only two years old. So instead, he took the deposit and donated it.

CASE FOUNDATION: Oh, that is great.

MS. MILLER: We had a gentleman who said that after the show, he and his family filled the back of their SUV and drove the contents to the shelters. It is wonderful to think that we were able to motivate that kind of action. Of course, I see it as more of the kids having the effect on the community. They are the ones up there doing it on stage. I write the words, but that's the easy part.

CASE FOUNDATION: What an impact you have had on these children.

MS. MILLER: They have had a huge impact on me too and for that I am very grateful.