Shameless Plug

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I hate to do this on my blog, but many of you are what I would call friends in a strange sense and since I have so few friends in real life, I've got to look somewhere.
As you know, Josh (my son), qualified for the National speech tournament. While being an exceptional accomplishment, the school refuses to fund the entire trip. The registration has been paid and I think they're covering airfare, but it is now up to Josh to raise an additional $800 in less than three weeks to pay for the hotel and meals for both he and his sponsor.
The following is a letter (with some links added) that I'm sending out to the few friends and family that I have (about 25 people). If you feel moved at all to help, that would be great and if not or if you don't have the means, I understand.

May 14, 2008

Dear Friends & Family:

As you may or may not know, Josh recently qualified for the National Forensic League (NFL) National speech tournament to be held June 14-21 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a prestigious honor to have qualified for this level of competition. The NFL is the nation’s oldest and largest debate and speech honor society. Since it’s founding in 1925 they have enrolled over one million members in all 50 states. It exists to promote secondary school speech and debate activities and interscholastic competition as a means to develop a student’s lifelong skills and values and to increase the public’s awareness of the value of speech, debate, and communication education.

This is the first time in many years that Canyon has had a student qualify for Nationals. The registration fees have been paid, but since the team has been more active this year, they do not have funds remaining for travel expenses. The school is willing to pay for the airfare, but is unable to help out beyond that. An additional $800 is needed to cover the hotel and meals for both Josh and Ms. XXXX.

This is where you come in. We have two weeks of school left to raise this money and we can’t sell enough candy bars to raise the amount needed. We’ve decided to do a different kind of fund raiser called “Stock in Talk” which was originally promoted by the NFL and used successfully by other schools in the area. If you choose, you can “invest” in Josh’s speech career by purchasing “stock” in him at $10 a share. Of course you may buy more “shares” if you have the means, but any amount you can give is appreciated. This is strictly a donation to the Speech team and the funds will be used to pay for the travel expenses in Vegas. If excess money is raised, it will be retained by the team and used for expenses next school year.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once stated “According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” Despite the humor, public speaking for most is still daunting and those that overcome those fears tend to be more successful. The skills gained through speech competition will last a lifetime. The experience of participating in a National tournament will help Josh hone his talents by being in the presence of other great competitors.

With that said, I hope that you will be able to financially support Josh in the National competition. By doing so, you will receive a Stock Certificate that shows your support and Josh will write back to you about his Nationals experience. Please include an email or mailing address. Checks should be made out to Speech Team. Again, any amount will help in this endeavor. If possible, please respond by June 1 so the money can be deposited and available for use.

Here's more information about the fundraiser. Again, if my panhandling bothers you, I promise this is the only time I will make this request and will go back to regular blogging soon.