River Gipping
The River Gipping is the source river for the River Orwell in the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, England, which is named from the village of Gipping, and which gave its name to the former Gipping Rural District. The name is unrelated to the name of Ipswich. It rises near Mendlesham Green and flows in a south-westerly direction to reach Stowmarket. From there it flows towards the south or south east, passing through Needham Market and a number of villages to reach Ipswich, where it becomes the Orwell. The river has supplied power to a number of watermills, several of which are still standing. None are operational, although the mill at Baylham retains most of its machinery, and is the only complete mill on the river.
Jonathan Rapping
While living in Washington, Rapping met and married his wife, Ilham Askia, who was teaching at an elementary school and then spent two years at a charter high school for court involved children. Askia was born in Buffalo, New York and every man in her family has been a victim of the criminal justice system. Askia's father went to Attica Correctional Facility when she was five years old. She helped raise her younger brother who ended up in prison. Askia became a teacher to break the school-to-prison pipeline, but soon questioned how much of a difference she could make on the front end. This led to her joining Rapping to start Gideon's Promise and, ultimately, to become the organization's Executive Director, where she advocates for attacking the pipeline on the back end.