Becky Crews
Hi ABC Members,
ABC is hosting its 80th Annual Conference in Seattle. I am happy to announce that ABC affiliate CRARF is hosting a silent auction again this year at the conference in an effort to raise awareness and funds for the Youth Voices Poetry Projects. Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project is a non-profit organization seeking to empower displaced youths from high conflict areas by providing an outlet through creative expression. These students were forced from their home country due to war, violence, lack of healthcare, education, or factors that jeopardize the children, and their family's survival.
How You Can Help
Donations to the silent auction can include anything from gift certificates, to wine and food baskets, to getaways, to electronics, to collectibles from your organization or university. If you are interested in donating, please contact Becky Morrison as soon as possible to confirm your donation pledge, its value, description, your contact information, organizational affiliation, pick-up/drop-off details, etc.
Donations are tax-deductible and a great way to increase the visibility of your business or institution among conference attendees. Also don’t forget to stop by the auction and bid!
Proceeds to Youth Voices Poetry Project & CRARF’s Graduate Student Fund
This year, money won from the Silent Auction will be divided between the CRARF’s graduate student fund and Seattle’s 501@c-3 non-profit, Shunpike, umbrella for the Youth Voices Poetry Project. 100% of the money received for donated items from Seattle-based businesses will be donated to the Youth Voices Poetry Project. The money made from items donated by ABC members will be divided between the CRARF’s graduate student fund and Youth Voices Poetry Project. For more information, contact Becky Morrison. You may like to read on below for a letter from Jim Dubinsky, ABC Executive Director and Treasurer, C.R. Anderson Research Fund.
See you in Seattle,
Becky
Read on for a letter from Jim Dubinsky
Dear ABC Members,
Our 80th annual international conference is quickly approaching, and, for the third consecutive year, we will partner with a nonprofit organization in the city that is hosting us. This year our partner is Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project. I’m writing to ask for your help in making this event a success.
Stories of Arrival enacts our theme of Creativity and Innovation daily. The organization’s staff teach students to use poetry to bring experiences of war, forced migration, and immigration to the larger community. Most of the project’s students are ethnic minorities who have experienced violent conflicts in their home countries; many have lived in refugee camps for most of their lives. Each young person in the project will be the first to attend and graduate from a high school in the U.S. As a result of the instruction, they become ambassadors, and they learn to give voice and expression to their identities as immigrants and refugees in a new country and culture.
You can help by sharing gift certificates or items for the auction (It helps if gift certificates are valid through 2016). Actual goods can be delivered to the conference/silent auction site at the Renaissance Seattle. If you plan to bring a gift to donate, please contact Becky Morrison, our silent auction chair.
The C. R. Anderson Research Fund, ABC’s 501@c-3 affiliate, will be the official entity holding the auction, and the money from the gifts you donate will go to support the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project’s umbrella organization Shunpike, also a (501@c-3), as well as our own fund for supporting graduate students. Any gift you make will be tax deductible.
For questions, please contact the silent auction chair, Becky Morrison or ABC’s office manager, Marilyn Buerkens.
Thank you again for your commitment to making ABC an organization with a heart and a social conscience.
Sincerely,
Jim
