Las Cruces Academy

Introduction

While we weren't able to obtain a suitable location in time to open for the 2008-09 school year, the preparations we made have paid off quite nicely for the 2009-10 school year. We've also made progress on raising funds and collecting supplies. We hope you enjoy this newsletter, and as always, let us know if you have any comments or questions!

Table of Contents:

• Temporary and Final Location
• Fundraisers
• School Supplies
• Website
• Newsletter Upgrades

Temporary and Final Location

Finding and vetting a location for the school has been taking up the majority of our time since the last newsletter, since a school without a home is in a bad situation. We've found a temporary location for the Academy that, while not ideal, meets all our requirements. We can't disclose it quite yet, but we're tremendously relieved that we have an all but certain temporary home for the school, especially since it can be ready well before August 2009.

We've also found several candidates for the Academy's final location, but in the course of our research discovered that we can expect a one year delay between the date of purchase and the day we break ground for construction, so we won't be in our final location until either the 2010-11 or 2011-12 school year. Other than the delay, though, we're feeling very confident. As we mentioned, we have several candidate locations around town, which is good news. We have much better news, though: some donors (who wish to remain anonymous) have offered to help us purchase and finance our real estate purchase! And as icing on the cake, we found two realtors--Kathe Pass and Norma Salgado--who have shown a level of excitement and helpfullness that we never thought we'd see in town; they're even advertising for us! There's still a lot of work ahead of us before we can move into a final location, but having Kathe, Norma, and the donors will make it much, much easier.

Fundraisers

4th of July

First, we are happy to announce that the volunteers for the Academy earned $1,200.00 in the 4th of July Festivities held by the City of Las Cruces. We are very pleased, as this will help purchase supplies necessary for the Academy's opening.

We would like to thank many people for this very successful fund raiser. First of all, Mr. Robert Caldwell, our contact who works for the City and who made the event function well for us. Mr. John Griffith, former Executive Director of the High Tech Consortium, is the one responsible for our being able to participate in this event. The volunteers who sold thousands of Pepsi products to attendees at the festivities were:

Darlene Armstrong, a retired teacher and great LCA supporter
Fred Bugbee, Monika Mojica, and their little son, Luke, a future student, who helped by watching
Lisa Ebbs, a bright, hard-working NMSU student, and her friend, Sarah Hudseth
Barbara Kimber-Durr, a wonderful friend who sold more Pepsi than anyone else (whose hands may still bear the scars of pushing bottles of Pepsi products into or out of tubs of ice), and her help-mate, George Barber.
Liz Monroy, an NMSU student, with her two charming sons and one of their friends
Doug Murray, an insurance agent new to Las Cruces, who has been very helpful as an advisor & supporter, and who actually helped both days of the Festivities, what a friend!
Plus, of course, members of our Board of Trustees: David & Vince Gutschick, Sue Shiao, and Lou Ellen Kay.

Cherries & Chocolate

We are calling our major upcoming fundraiser, which will be held November 15th from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at the historic Fountain House in Mesilla, Cherries & Chocolate: a Celebration of Desserts. It should be an amazing event, with sampling of enticing desserts accompanied by music, beverages, and a truly unique silent auction, all in a lovingly restored home, now owned by Len Gambrel, and his wife, Lori Miller. Tickets will be on sale for $50 starting on or shortly before October 15th, and will include drinks and unlimited desserts. We will be limiting the number of tickets, but you may pre-order tickets by replying to this email with the number of tickets you wish to purchase.

We do need some help to make sure this fund raiser is as successful as possible (i.e. raises a lot of money which will be used to help the Academy). What follows is a list of tasks that need to be done. If you can help with one or more of these we would greatly appreciate it.

We need several more desserts to sample, so if you make a dessert that always draws rave reviews when you serve it, we would greatly appreciate it if you would:
send us the recipe. We are going to collect the recipes of the desserts to be sampled into a dessert cookbook, which will be sold the evening of the fund raiser, and
make and donate enough of the dessert so it may be sampled by approximately 50 people.
If you frequent a restaurant or shop that has a particularly delicious dessert, we would really appreciate it if you would ask the owner or manager if they would donate:
the recipe, so we may include it in our cookbook (we will certainly acknowledge them, or if they are absolutely unwilling to share the recipe, and you think it is really spectacular, we will simply state where it may be purchased), and
enough of the dessert so that it can be sampled by about 50 people. Please tell them that any donation is tax exempt and we will certainly provide them with a document thanking them for their generous donation to a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization.
If you have any wonderful possessions that you no longer need, we would love to include them in the silent auction. We are looking for things such as: art objects, small antiques, particularly lovely or interesting plants or objects acquired during foreign travels. We are also hoping to offer services, such as:
an offer to drive someone to the El Paso airport and then pick them up again
an offer of technical help, e.g. 2 hours of computer repair or help
an offer of physical help, like cleaning out a garage or pulling weeds from a yard, or
a specially prepared meal with entertainment.
These are just some suggestions; you may have more interesting skills to donate.
We would appreciate any help in selling tickets or soliciting donations. Please be thinking about who you know who might enjoy an elegant evening in Mesilla, or who you know who believes in educational excellence, and who would be willing to give money to support it. You could ask them now and promise to return when tickets go on sale. Remember that the majority of the price will be considered a tax-deductible donation, and will earn a spot on our donors page. We also hope, of course, that those of you who can afford it will buy tickets and attend yourself. If you, or someone you approach, would like to donate but can not attend, please suggest that they “donate” a ticket. We can consider the entire ticket price as a tax-exempt donation and provide them with a letter stating that.

School Supplies

Our collection of books and other teaching tools continues to grow. We recently purchased a bar code scanner and a library software package. These are allowing us to enter all of our books (most of which continue to be donated by Mrs. Mary McDonald, one of our most faithful and generous donors) and catalog them. We hope to have this list available on our website in the near future. We have cataloged about 300 out of well over 2,000 books so far.

Website

Our website was redesigned by David Gutschick using PmWiki. We believe it's significantly more attractive and functional now. Some highlights include a calendar, contact information with an interactive map, a news feed you can subscribe to, and an easy and secure online donation page.

Newsletter Upgrades

Our newsletter has two significant improvements. First is the instant subscribe and unsubscribe functions. If you're receiving this, you're already subscribed, but you can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link at the end of the email. The second improvement is an online archive.

Best Wishes,
Dr. Lou Ellen Kay
Director, Las Cruces Academy