Jun 182006
 

I just posted the following bit about the “Colorado Books Project” to SoloPassion. Please notice the great opportunity to double your donation with matching funds!

A few years ago, the Ayn Rand Institute surveyed high school teachers and discovered that the major reason many don’t teach Ayn Rand’s fiction in their English classes is the simple lack of books. The bureaucracy makes it difficult to obtain them from the school, and they are expensive to buy out-of-pocket. So ARI started its “Free Books for Teachers” program to remedy that problem.

How does it work? Often with the help of directed donations, the teachers in a given area are notified of the program by a lovely brochure. They can order any number of free copies of Anthem and The Fountainhead from ARI, along with teacher’s manuals. In return, all that the teachers must do is agree to actually teach the novels.

So far, the project has been enormously successful: demand for the books has been very strong, teachers are delighted with the enthusiastic response of their students, and many more students are submitting to ARI’s essay contests. Most importantly, hundreds of thousands of high school students are reading Ayn Rand in their classes thanks to this program. And soon, those students will be voting — and shaping our culture and politics.

Last year, Lin Zinser of Front Range Objectivism solicited donations for Colorado. (Minus Denver, since that was already taken.) And because of that, thousands of soon-to-be-voting Colorado students have read Anthem and The Fountainhead. Happily, demand was greater than expected: more Colorado teachers wanted to teach Ayn Rand’s fiction than ARI anticipated based upon its general response rate. So this year, Lin is working to raise even more money for the Colorado Books Project. If you choose to donate to the Colorado Books Project, you can get enormous bang for your buck: someone has donated $1000 in matching funds for donations for Colorado greater than those of last year, including any donations from any new donors.

To take advantage of those matching funds, you can write your check directly to ARI. Just be sure to indicate that it’s for the “Colorado Books Project.” And you’ll need to e-mail Lin the amount of your donation in order to take advantage of the matching funds. (Full donation directions can be found toward the bottom of this blog post.) Donations of any size are welcome — and for areas outside Colorado too. (Matching funds only apply to Colorado, however.) All donations are tax-deductible.

If you are interested in changing the culture in America for the better by introducing young people to Ayn Rand’s ideas, ARI’s “Free Books for Teachers” is a program that you ought to support. Ayn Rand is her own best salesman — and the impact of hundreds of thousands of high school students reading Ayn Rand’s fiction every year will be enormous. Even if you’re still wary of ARI, you can support this program without endorsing all that ARI does.

Please forward this announcement to Objectivists you know unlikely to see it here. Your donations — and theirs — could make all the difference in the world.

Don’t delay: The time to act is now!

Also, Here is Lin Zinser’s latest letter on the current funding drive:

We are closing in on the last 2 weeks of this drive. We need your support. I have received a challenge from 2 supporters — who will match any contribution over what was made last year — up to $1,000. So, if you have not given any monies before, then any contribution by you to the Colorado Book project will be matched by them — up to $1,000.00. If you did make a contribution last year, then any contribution over and above what you made last year will be met by them up to this same limit. This includes pledges. So, if you can’t write a check for that amount in the next week, but can do so in the next few months, this counts.

Make these two people pay, — make them give ’til it hurts!! (grin) — and join our group of people donating to make Ayn Rand read by every high school student in Colorado. Remember, these kids will be voting in just 2 to 5 years. These students will be making choices on issues and candidates in a very short while. NOW is the time to provide some positive influence on what they think about and how they think about themselves and the world, including the people around them and the cultural and political issues in this country and abroad. Reading Anthem or The Fountainhead can make a difference in their lives — after all, it made a difference in yours.

Many tax-deductible donations don’t promise a lot because they are easing the suffering or tragedies that have befallen good people — like the generosity of those who provided monies to those who were hit by natural disasters — earthquakes, hurricanes or tsunamis. These tax-deducible donations to ARI are a way to a brighter future for you and me because, through these donations for the ARI Colorado Book Project, more young people will understand what it means to be a self-starter, to be first-handed, to be self-reliant, and will want the government to leave them alone to pursue their own visions and values. The only way to meet the political challenges of the leftist louses and the rigid religious right is to change the culture and the only way to affect that change is by philosophy.

Please help me change the future of Colorado. Take it from the hands of people like our present governor and legislature, who made smoking in public places illegal, but kept eminent domain legal even though there were five bills and two constitutional amendments considered by the Colorado legislature on that issue. One way to affect this change is to give money to ARI for the Colorado Book project so that future legislators and governors will be forced, in response to their constituents, to forget about smoking and outlaw eminent domain.

All Contributions to the Ayn Rand Institute are tax-deductible. Thank you for your attention to this request.

Remember, there are now four ways to contribute — 1) Send a check or money order directly to ARI and indicate on it that this money is for the Colorado Book Project; 2) Send a check or money order to me, payable to ARI; 3) donate stock shares to ARI (contact Kathy Cross at ARI, at 310-876-1633 or [email protected]); or 4) contact me by phone, e-mail or letter with your pledge amount — to be donated later this year.

ARI’s Address —

The Ayn Rand Institute
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250
Irvine, California, 92606-4926

My address —

8700 Dover Court
Arvada, CO 80005

Lin Zinser
Front Range Objectivism
www.FrontRangeObjectivism.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 303.431.2525

Objectivists often lament the awful state of the culture, including the erosion of our liberties. I’m telling you: talk is cheap. Actually changing the culture is not hard, nor even terribly expensive. ARI’s “Free Books for Teachers” program can make huge inroads, but that requires money from donors like you and me. So if you do care about the state of the culture, don’t content yourself with idle complaints and wishes. Take action! Put your money where your mouth is!

   
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