Dear Fellow Parent of an MLW Delegate,
Although we do not know each other, this past summer we shared with you the common experience of retrieving one of our kids following a very full week at Maryland Leadership Workshops. For us, the drive back home from Chestertown was remarkable for a long list of reasons. Chief among them was the fact that the trip reminded us just how much our kids who have attended MLW have significantly and tangibly benefitted from the experience. They have each come home from MLW more self-aware, more in tune to others around them, and clearly having grown into more mature and responsible people. Listening to our son in the car on the way home describing the fun he had — most of which had to do with the numerous, practical learning experiences during the week — made us proud that our “delegate” was returning from MLW having grown as an individual who was more capable than ever of employing new skills as a leader among his peers.
As former MLW staff members ourselves who quite literally grew up through our participation in the MLW programs, we can tell you that MLW enriched us by providing us with skills that we have used in our personal and professional lives each and every day ever since. We could not be more pleased than to have our kids, on their own initiative, chose to attend the MLW programs. You can understand why we were reinvigorated by the trip to Chestertown. Being around the enthusiastic staff and the cheerful delegates and seeing the many posters and learning tools still prominent in the hallways and around the campus brought home to both of us just how remarkable each of the MLW programs have always been and will continue to be — as long as the organization remains able to sustain itself. This is not an easy task in this difficult economy for a non-profit organization that draws its strength from a “peer-teaching” model and is staffed by virtual volunteers who participate out of their love of the program and their belief in MLW’s core principles. Now is the time when organizations such as MLW need the support of the individuals who benefit from the program, namely delegate-alumni and the parents of these kids who grow so much through the MLW experience.
Please, we urge you now, while the memory of your trip to Chestertown is still fresh, to show your thanks by making a tax-deductible contribution to MLW, which has been tirelessly and continuously providing leadership training to students such as your kids and ours and thousands of others throughout the state of Maryland for close to 60 years. We know that this is a time when every household is trying to minimize its expenses and local governments are simultaneously contracting their support of “discretionary” expenses. Nevertheless, we hope you will join us in making a difference by giving your support to MLW, an organization that operates on a shoe string, so that it can bring affordable training in life-skills and leadership development, to deserving kids in Maryland year after year.
We look forward to hearing from you. Please give now by visiting our Support MLW page.
Sincerely,
Larry Culleen and Nina Weisbroth,
Current parents, former MLW delegate and long-time MLW staff members