Annual Appeal

We have wonderful news! The WGAE Foundation just received an “Access to Artistic Excellence in Literature” matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support our Actors and Writers Book Club program. As a valued supporter, we wanted you to be among the first to know about the NEA grant, which will bring established actors and writers to four US cities to read and discuss classic works of literature.

This $10,000 is a matching grant; for every dollar you donate, we will receive two. What better way to make your contribution double in value the moment you give?! We write in hopes that you will give your support to this our 2011 appeal.

More great news: an anonymous donor, in response to the NEA, has agreed to match every dollar we receive, up to $10,000. So please be generous.

The Actors and Writers Book Club has been a major force in spreading an appreciation of literature to underserved classrooms. In 2010 we sent Billy Baldwin and Susanna Styron to Mt. Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh, where over 100 students heard them read and discuss John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. In 2011-12, Book Club participants will visit selected high schools in four cities to read from such classics as Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeale Hurston, A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Studies show time and again that students engaged in reading and enjoying literature stand a far better chance of graduating from high school and continuing to achieve academic success in college. Please join us in helping bring this opportunity to classrooms around the country.

You may donate online here or go to www.wgaefoundation.org, where you can learn about other exciting programs of the Foundation. Or, you may contribute by check made payable to the WGAE Foundation. Simply download and complete the reply card and return it with your check.

Thanks for your support,

President
WGAE Foundation