To Public School's In America and Canada

Dear Administrator,

Thank you for your interest in bringing the Save America's Youth program into your school.  Save America's Youth is an outreach program of Freedom Village USA, the largest home for troubled teens in North America, located in Lakemont, New York. 

Save America's Youth teams travel to public and private schools across the United States and Canada with a presentation of powerful singing and real-life stories of former troubled teenagers.  These young people have found hope and freedom from substance abuse, violence, permissiveness, suicidal thoughts, and various other problems that led them down a path of self-destruction.

 Because of their own experiences, the Save America’s Youth team members know the pain and hopelessness that many young people are facing today. Now they are able to share the answer for their lives with others who may very well be in the same situation that they once were in. We have learned over the years that nothing is more effective than teens reaching out to teens. Their presentation is powerful, because it is real!

Even if it appears that these problems do not exist in your school, personal stories like these could be the very thing that prevents a student from making a tragic or fatal choice.  A recent USA Today study revealed that 67% of 2000 teenagers surveyed said, “I feel like my life is hopeless…I have nothing to live for.” Suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens 15 to 19 years of age.  Sadly enough, millions of teenagers admit to using marijuana, cocaine or alcohol regularly. We are all too familiar with the end results when a student’s anger, hatred and hopeless feelings erupt into violence. 

Enclosed please find information concerning Save America’s Youth, along with at least two letters of recommendation from schools that we have previously attended. In your school we will offer some guidelines for making the right choices based on personal experience.  Please know that we work within the boundaries and guidelines of any school we enter into. 

Our financial goal for an assembly is approximately $300 - $500 per school.  We realize that not every school is able to meet this goal, but we do ask that you help us with a donation, seeing that we are a non-profit organization.  If a donation is not possible, we do not let the lack of funds within a school deter us from coming.  Also, the length of an assembly is designed in accordance with each school’s time frame as well as their needs.

Now is a difficult time in America to be a teenager.  Through the Save America's Youth assembly program, we want to remind every student that there is hope and an answer for any situation they find themselves in.  We want to do everything possible to help keep them from making wrong choices.

 Thank you for your consideration in bringing this program into your school.  If I can answer any questions or be of any help, please feel free to call me.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Sarah Cope

Executive Director

Save America's Youth

607-243-8126 ext. 357

saveateenfv@yahoo.com

An Outreach of FREEDOM VILLAGE U.S.A. · P.O. Box 24 Rt. 14, Lakemont, NY 14857 ·

Look Who's Talking

Jeannette - Feeling the effects of violence and divorce at home, I grew into a very rebellious and permissive young girl. Having been thrown out of several different schools, I began to live a very permissive life filled with drugs, alcohol and unhealthy relationships. I found myself involved with a 32-year-old drug dealer and pregnant at the age of 16! Not knowing what to do I had an abortion. I became the person I said I would never be! After leaving home, I had no life! I had come to "the end of myself." I decided to turn my life around. I am married now to a wonderful man who loves me for who I am, not what he can get from me. We kept ourselves pure the whole time we were dating, and I can definitely say it was worth it. I found real love, and a real life. If I can do it anyone can.

Brian - I was brought up in a good home, but when I was 13 years old my parents separated very unexpectedly. I took it pretty hard because I never saw it coming. I began acting up in school, and started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol in middle school. To make a long story short my drug habit progressed to a $100 a day heroin addiction! I soon found myself in many rehabs. I had lost control of my life to drugs, and had hit rock bottom. I finally admitted myself into a hospital and went through the most painful five days of my life. Coming off a $100 a day heroin addiction was like being hit by a truck! I began to cry thinking my life was over, but I decided to try and get myself back on track. I started making the right choices and started doing right. I learned how to have character and be a man. It takes a real man to stand up for what is right instead of conforming to peer pressure. I am a changed guy, and it all started with one right choice after another.