Me? An Ambassador?

During the first week of school, I received a letter in the mail. It looked kind of like a "Who's Who" pay-money-to-get-some-kind-of-recognition scam. My mom almost threw it away. But when my bonus dad saw it, he recognized the name People to People.

"Two of my nieces did that program," he said. "One went to Canada and the other went to Australia. Don't throw that out."

And here I am today.

I have no idea who nominated me, but I was chosen due to my illustrious academic performance. It's just luck, I guess, that I'm also very involved in the community and in my church. It's a great honor to be nominated, but I want to do more than receive that honor. I want the opportunity to make the most out of this experience. I want the chance really experience the People to People Tale of Two Cities program.

But to do that, I need money.

We're not broke, mind you, but we're not rich. Who is these days? Work is sporadic for my dads at this time, and they're doing their best. Meanwhile, my mom is bustin' her hump to make sure that I'm dressed, fed and ready for dance recitals. There is no way we could make this dream come true alone.

That's where you good people come in; I need help. Let me tell you why this is such an amazing program first, though.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower started this program to broaden the horizons of American youth. In his experiences abroad in World War II, he learned that interactions between between the ordinary citizens around the world could do more to promote peace and understanding than anything else.

People to People offers first-hand experiences with other cultures, the opportunity to see, feel, touch history in a way that will forever change the student ambassadors. It offers the opportunity to reach out and learn from others as well as teach the world that our mission is to promote peace and understanding.

So, that's that. We're hoping that people like you will be able to help me out by making donations on this site. Right now we're working on finding ways to make that easy to do! Stay tuned as I keep you all updated on my progress with fund raising, essay writing and all of the other fun stuff that goes into making my dream come true.