Services

March 15, 2005

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

One of the great gifts that my father gave me was a love for sports. That love for sports

which my dad gave to me led me to ESPN television’s broadcast of the annual sports

awards in 1993. That night I watched Jim Valvano bring a room filled with sport’s best

and brightest to tears as he gave his acceptance speech upon being awarded the

Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Among the wisdom he shared was this: he said, “I

always have to think about what's important in life to me are these three things. Where

you started; where you are; and where you're gonna be. Those are the three things that

I try and do every day.”

It’s important for an organization like LEAP to keep thinking about where we began,

where we are, and where we want to be. LEAP began as a good idea led to a small

office above a store front, which has grown in less than five years into an organization

serving more than 300 students each week. Today LEAP is present in communities

throughout Noble County. Today LEAP works collaboratively with partners to offer

learner-centered education to anyone in our community brave enough to seek it.

Our

vision is to ignite a learning revolution in Noble County.

That’s the future that

LEAP strives for. That is where LEAP is “gonna be.”

A Noble County ignited by a learning revolution will be one in which every member of our

community can acquire a high quality education. It will be a community where learning is

not an activity that takes place only in the first 18 years of life or only within the walls of a

school, but where community members can engage in training and education throughout

their lives. Noble County will be a community that equips its individuals with the

knowledge and understanding they need to do whatever they dream. This is where

Noble County’s “gonna be.”

LEAP has an important part to play in that future. LEAP’s future includes a vision of

learning centers not only in Albion, but in Kendallville, and in Ligonier as well. LEAP’s

future includes access to English classes for any who will take advantage, and a

foundation of LEAP’s future involves building successful partnerships to meet the need

for adult education that exists in our community.

You are the key to igniting a learning revolution in Noble County.

LEAP recently

kicked off its first annual campaign.

LEAP seeks to raise $300,000 in operational

support from businesses and individuals in northeast Indiana.

The funds will be

used to cover the operational expenses that LEAP incurs in its efforts to extend literacy

and education throughout Noble County. For instance, each 45 minute one-on-one

tutoring session offered at the Noble County Learning Center costs LEAP $22.87. That

cost encompasses rent, software, software support, materials, resources, wages for an

excellent staff, and professional development for that staff. This year, attendance at the

Learning Center has grown by 25%. By the end of this fiscal year, the cost of one-on-

one tutoring services will exceed $92,000. Your support will help insure that the Noble

County Learning Center can continue to offer the one-on-one tutoring services that our

community has shown such a great demand for.

Today, your gift has special value. For every dollar donated to LEAP by June

30th, the Dekko Foundation will contribute $1.50. If we meet our goal, there is

an additional $375,000 in matching dollars available to LEAP.

By maximizing this

challenge grant, LEAP will have moved a long way toward insuring that a literacy project

will exist in Noble County for years to come so that families and individuals can achieve

their dreams.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, and particularly the students of

LEAP of Noble County, I am asking you, I am asking Noble County to invest $300,000 in

a literacy project. Studies demonstrate that for each dollar invested in a literacy project

there is an $11 dollar return to the community. Following that formula, your investment

will generate a $3.3 million return to Noble County. A 3.3 million dollar return on our

investment would be an amazing boon to our community and local economy.

There are pledge cards available if you wish to make a gift to LEAP of Noble County,

today.

If you’d like to visit our programs to see the work that we are doing,

please contact LEAP and we will set up a tour.

If you have questions, Jenna Ott or I

will be glad to answer them. If you believe in the promise of a more literate Noble

County,

help LEAP find others who will believe in and support its mission.

Your

support is the torch with which a learning revolution can be ignited. Let the light of your

torch brighten the path toward education and literacy that is tread by LEAP’s students.

Sincerely yours,

Matt Bell