Letter from Mr. S. Douglas Bunch, Executive Director:

Dear Friends,

As I reflect on the past year, I think of the scholarship program we inaugurated to give high school students the organizational and financial support they need to create Latin programs in local elementary schools.

I think of the workshop that Ascanius hosted in Fairfax County, Virginia, that gave over 120 teachers of gifted students the tools they need to integrate the Classics into the elementary school gifted curriculum.

Perhaps most moving, I think of the outreach programs Ascanius hosted for students in rural Gloucester County, Virginia. As a result of those programs, more than one hundred third-graders at two elementary schools received instruction in Latin and the Classics – instruction that they otherwise would not have received. The number of students attending these programs exceeded our expectations, but not our capacity to teach them. We came to Gloucester determined to teach every student who wished to learn, and we did just that.

I am even more inspired when I think of what Ascanius will accomplish this coming summer. Ascanius will host not one, but four LatinSummer programs. The largest will be in Alexandria, Virginia. Working with Alexandria City Public Schools, we have identified sixty students who will take part in the two-week long enrichment program. An unprecedented number of these students are first- and second-graders. We will host similar programs, on a smaller scale, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and in Amherst, Massachusetts, in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts. We will also host a LatinSummer program in Philadelphia in conjunction with the American Classical League’s annual Institute.

It is a happy coincidence that the largest group of students at LatinSummer Alexandria will also be our youngest. In conjunction with LatinSummer Alexandria, we will host our fifth Teacher Workshop, entitled Unus, Duo, Tres Romani: Latin and the Primary Grades. The three-day workshop – free of cost to teachers who attend – includes six presentations by leaders in the field. Because of the generous donation of an anonymous donor, we are able to offer travel grants to six teachers in Western Massachusetts to enable them to participate.

I write to say thank you, and to ask for your continued support. We could not have accomplished what we have – and we cannot continue to accomplish what we might – without your financial assistance. Over the course of the next year, we plan to expand our scholarship programs. We also hope to increase the number of outreach programs we offer, continuing to target students of low socioeconomic status in inner cities and rural areas. In fact, we hope to work with the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to bring Latin to elementary school students at public schools in New York City. We will continue to sponsor LatinSummer as well as our seasonal programs. Our goals are ambitious, but not unachievable, and we are relying on you to help make them reality.

Please consider making a donation. Even a small one will help tremendously. As a 501(c)(3) public charity, your gifts to the Institute are tax deductible. You may give at one of six levels, each of which is described below.

I can’t describe to you what it is like to see elementary school students dancing down the halls to the poetry of Catullus, or marching out to their cars at the end of the day with legionary standards. But it happens. It has long been our goal that wherever there is a student willing to learn, we will teach him. Please help us do so.

Pledge Level	Amount	Our Free Gift to You
Venus	$25	Ascanius magnet
Anchises	$50	Ascanius magnet
Aeneas	$100	Ascanius magnet
Ascanius	$250	Ascanius tile coaster
Julius Caesar	$500	Ascanius mug
Augustus	$1000	Ascanius tote bag
Other	Your preference	Dependent on amount given

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