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We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. Franklin D. Roosevelt  Dear Friends and Parents, It's back to school time, which means that our Young Writers Program is gearing up for another year of writing, reading, and literary discussion that helps prepare our young people to think deeply, engage fully, and develop their innate creativity. The Young Writers Program will benefit 1,800 students this year—1,200 in free outreach workshops at schools like South High (below, left), where international students will transform their refugee experiences into a book of stories for young children, and at Florence Crittenton High School for Pregnant and Parenting Teens (below, center), where young women craft personal essays exploring their early journeys into motherhood, which they'll submit as their high school graduation essays.  Another 600 youth will take part in after-school and summer workshops at Lighthouse (above and below, right); 30% of those students will be able to attend because of scholarships from generous donors, like you. Overall, workshops, writing clubs, and close reading classes are planned for nearly 30 schools in Denver, Boulder, Aurora, Arvada, and Thornton. We'll continue to expand one-on-one mentoring with at-risk youth in residential treatment centers, and there are a host of new classes and collaborations taking place right here at Lighthouse, too. Our hope is to enable every interested child, from 3rd through 12th grade, to find their voices and let their creativity take flight. Your support is needed to keep the Young Writers Program thriving. Nurture young writers throughout the year with an easy, affordable, and tax-deductible monthly gift. $10/month will provide supplies for an in-school workshop. $15/month will help run an after-school writing club. $35/month will put a working writer in a classroom. Or donate one-time. Each gift of $50 will support an additional student. Donate by September 15, 2014, and as a special thanks, we'll send you a copy of We Are the Wild (while supplies last). This 2014 anthology features works by young writers ages 11 to 18, from 20 schools and youth centers. Knowing that only 28% of Denver's ninth-graders are proficient in writing means that our work—putting poetry and stories back into schools—is crucial to creating Denver’s future writers and thinkers. Your gift, however modest, increases the number of children who will have the opportunity to learn and grow through the Lighthouse Young Writers Program. With appreciation and eyes on the future, Andrea, Mike, Meg, Kim, and 1,800 promising young writers 1515 Race Street, Denver, CO 80206 e: info@lighthousewriters.org | w: www.lighthousewriters.org | p: 303-297-1185 | f: 303-225-3269