Scrabble Challenge Sponsors and Auction Items Needed

Dear Friend of Literacy,
Thank you for considering a sponsorship of Literacy Volunteers of Central CT’s
8th Annual Scrabble Challenge. This is our primary fundraising event and will be
held on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, CT.
Our goal this year is to raise $50,000 so we can continue to improve lives through
literacy. Your support will help us meet our goal. The need for adult literacy
services has never been greater. Your donation is tax deductible and will directly
support the high quality programs we provide to hundreds of motivated low literate
adults and their families free of charge in the sixteen communities we serve.
Every dollar you donate has a value of $2.50 in services because we use
trained volunteers, and is also matched by state funds.
ONE OF MANY SUCCESS STORIES
Carol Hermanowski knew it was time to confront her reading problem when her
daughter began to catch on that Carol was making up the stories she was “reading”
to her. “I was pretending to read and made it all up. I knew it wouldn’t be long before
Patricia knew what I was up to and that I wasn’t the kind of mother I wanted to be,”
recalls the 47 year old New Britain resident. “But the first step toward helping
myself was admitting I had a problem.”
About two years ago Carol signed up for our Basic Literacy Program and was matched
with 14-year tutoring veteran Cindi Whitham. The two met weekly and together began to dowhat no other program had ever accomplished – teach Carol to read. She says, “I have so much more confidence in myself, and it’s mostly because Cindi has been so patient with me and really believed in me that I could do this.” Carolnow has plans to enroll in classes to become a Physical Therapy Assistant.
YOU CAN HELP! FUNDS ARE NEEDED TO:
• train and support more volunteer tutors like Cindi Whitham;
• provide high quality curriculum and resources for students and volunteers;
• maintain a nurturing and motivating educational environment;
• offer specialized programs such as Family Literacy, English as a second language
(ESL), basic literacy skills including speaking, reading, and writing in English,
and math tutoring;
• purchase standardized testing tools to evaluate student progress.
Thank you again for considering a sponsorship. If you have further questions or
need more information, please do not hesitate to call our office or email our
Executive Director, Darlene Hurtado, at director@literacycentral.org.
Sincerely,
Darlene S. Hurtado Heidi Yanavich
Executive Director Board President

Serving the
Communities of:
New Britain,Middletown,Berlin • Bristol, Burlington • Cromwell, Durham • East Haddam
East Hampton • Haddam, Kensington • Marlborough, Middlefield • Plainville
Portland • Southington

20 High Street
New Britain, CT 06051
860-229-7323

Matching Gifts Can Make a Difference

Thank you for taking the time to donate to our annual campaign. We truly appreciate all that you do for us!

Below is a letter from LVCC Board member, Pete Antonelli. Through his efforts LVCC has benefited from Aetna's matching gift program. Please take the time to read Pete's letter and find out if your company has a similar program. It is normally the case that you would have to apply each new calendar or fiscal year for matching funds depending upon your company's guidelines.

Thank you so very much for your generous gifts of time and monetary donations. Our students are very grateful that we can continue to offer quality programming for them because of your efforts.

LVCC Staff,
Darlene, Lynne, Kathleen, Tracy and Sue

PS: It is not too late to give to our annual appeal. : )

If you have any questions please feel free to contact our office at 860-229-7323 or email office@literacycentral.org.



Greetings!
I was asked to write to you today to explain the power of corporate donations and volunteer grants your employer, church or other organization may have available.

Since 2000, I have been able to donate over $9500 through my employer's volunteer grant program. This program encourages employees to perform volunteer work which they will then match with a monetary donation. This can be a significant amount of money. The program at Aetna only has a few requirements:
• the benefiting organization is a non profit
• the volunteer offers a minimum of 20 hours for the year
Most companies have similar programs. Since you are already a volunteer, we ask that you inquire with your employer, church, and/or organization. I have found that employers are very willing to make this type of donation because they like to encourage volunteerism; and they care.

Aetna, like many other organizations also has a matching donation program where they will match any donation $25 or more for a non profit organization. Again, this is a relatively easy process and I have been able to secure approximately $4000 in matching donations since 2000.

In these difficult economic times, non profit organizations like LVCC are struggling like everyone else to "make ends meet". Successful business' often recognize this and are more than willing to help out ... if asked.

Please ask your employer today if they have this type of program in place and how can you take advantage of it. Volunteerism is looked upon very highly in business and your employer should be extremely proud of the efforts you provide to those less fortunate.


Sincerely,

Pete Antonelli
LVCC Board Member

Scrabble Challenge

Hi Everyone,
It's SCRABBLE TIME!! Our goal this year is to raise $50,000 to help people to improve their lives through literacy. Our Board of Directors is off to a great start. Sponsor letters will be ready soon and invitations go out in early February. Please save the date. The event is April 28th at the Aqua Turf.
Darlene