VeStrand, the head custodian at Sunset Middle School in Longmont, Colo., and a member of the AFT-affiliated Colorado Classified School Employees Association, has won an award for her first play, heard it read on stage during a playwrights’ festival in Denver, and is now working on a screenplay to turn it into an independent film.

“Channel 15” is based on VeStrand’s experiences with homelessness, including a period in which she lived in a car and shelters in Denver with her young son. She writes about stealing ketchup and sugar packets for food, stuffing newspapers inside clothes to stay warm and riding a city bus for long periods when the shelter was full. The title comes from the homeless’s nickname for the bus, which VeStrand compares to a TV drama or comedy with all the interesting characters getting on and off.

Clearly there’s plenty of material for an engaging drama, but it took some prodding from a creative writing teacher for VeStrand to put it on paper. While she was working toward an associate’s degree, she needed an English class, and the only one available was creative writing. One assignment required the students to write a one-act play. “I’m dyslexic, and I didn’t like writing,” she admits. “So that was the last thing I wanted to do.” She told the instructor she had nothing to write about, but once they sat down and talked about VeStrand’s experiences, it was obvious she had a powerful story to tell.

“Channel 15”—the eventual result of that assignment—won an award and was selected to be read at the Play Showcase Festival in Denver earlier this year. Director Jennifer Vernon told the Daily Times-Call newspaper that the play is “an honest piece based on experiences in her life. I think that makes it a little more special than other shows.”

VeStrand has now become a writing fanatic. “I love writing, and I write all the time.” In addition to turning “Channel 15” into a screenplay, which she hopes to produce along with a filmmaker friend, she is entering it into another drama contest as well as working on new pieces. In general, VeStrand says, she uses events from her own life as the basis but the overall work is still fiction.

VeStrand took the custodian position in Longmont after she saw an advertisement for jobs in the district, but she enjoys the job and finds that it works well with her other activities, which not only include writing but also college classes, being the mother of two boys and preparing to get married. “Life is awesome now,” she says.

“I would like to be a writer when I grow up,” she says with a laugh. She knows that’s not an easy living, so Sunset Middle School will still have her services for now.

Looking back on her experiences on the streets, VeStrand talks about a couple of the characters in her play. One child says he wants to help everybody; an older man tells the boy that no matter how hard he tries, he can’t help everyone, but if he can help just one person, it’s all worthwhile.

For people who have never been homeless, VeStrand says, “Lots of people are in that situation because of circumstances” and not because of laziness or some character flaw. Just look at how far VeStrand has come.