“Thank you for leading us with your heart and soul on a path that no one will forget!”
— Rachel L., 6th Grade, Lawton K-8 School
December 3, 2024
Dear Supporters and Friends,
In the program’s early days, a good many well-meaning folks advised us to change our name. “Don’t call it SPIRIT SERIES—you’ll never get funding. Schools will never sign on.” True, we may have become a larger organization, faster, if we had heeded their counsel. But thanks to your vision and extraordinary generosity over the past 24 years, we have now served nearly 70,000 students from California to Maine. And, as the recent media coverage below might suggest, we seem to be having something of a “moment,” as well.
Despite a climate of widespread division and mistrust, or perhaps because of it, our mission seems to be especially resonant now as so many of us seek to find common ground and build bridges to our shared humanity. To that end, your support has never been more important, not only to ensure that the SERIES endures amid growing uncertainty about the future of public education, but in recognition that, now more than ever, it is essential to tend to our civic spirit…and the spirit of our kids.
How can we do that? Day after day, in classrooms coast to coast, we see our children in crisis: loneliness, social media, addiction, teen suicide. And, with every student who meets the SPIRIT SERIES challenge, we also see solutions. We witness daily the profound impact on young people when timeless, often unspoken, inner needs get addressed: their hunger for genuine community, meaning, purpose, wonder, self-expression and safe passage to adulthood.
Which brings us back to the word “spirit.” Its twin meanings get to the very heart of the matter for us: to have “spirit”—be filled with energy, inspiration, courage; and to “spirit” away—be carried across a mysterious threshold to someplace altogether new. It’s pretty simple, in our view. If we want the “spirit” of our young people to thrive, to be healthy, happy and whole, we must “spirit” them across that threshold on their perilous journey out of childhood. And it’s up to us, the adults, to lead the way. Otherwise, sadly, Tiktok and Instagram will.
As we redouble our efforts, thank you for your very generous support!
Leslie & Richard Strauss
Co-Directors, SPIRIT SERIES Inc.
