E-Letter 07/07/2004

From The President

Dear Ackerman School Alumni, Classmates and Friends,        

     I am writing you today to ask your immediate help with a window of opportunity for our Grand Piano Project for the Ty A. Cobb Auditorium at Ackerman School. We have been given the gracious offer of an almost new condition YAMAHA 6’7” Conservatory Series GRAND PIANO if we can raise $19,000 by September 1, 2004. We can purchase this excellent instrument at thousands of dollars less than what we would pay for a new one.

     Please send a generous donation today toward this worthy project. A Grand Piano Fund account has been established at Ackerman High School, 126 East Quinn Street, Ackerman, MS 39735. Contributions are tax deductible and a receipt will be provided. You may want to send your donation as a memorial or in honor of a former administrator, teacher or classmate of Ackerman School. The school will send an acknowledgement of donation to those you are honoring or family of those you are remembering if you will provide them an address. We will also list the memorials and honorariums here at our website – www.AckermanReunion.com. 

   A Worthy Project 

     An important part of our annual reunion is to renew friendships with former classmates and friends of Ackerman School. This year we discussed the need of our reunion group to reconnect with the current needs and goals of the school. We sought input from the teachers and accepted as a project the replacement of the worn out grand piano in the Ty A. Cobb Auditorium. Your Ackerman Reunion Group made the first contribution of $600 on the piano.

     AHS Choral Director Ricki Prewitt says, “This old grand has served the students well for decades but it is in desperate need of replacement.” Wouldn’t it be a good thing if our Ackerman Reunion Group could meet this need that is beyond the school’s current budget? The almost new condition Yamaha grand piano would serve well the current students of Mrs. Prewitt and those of generations to follow.

     Our reunion group has designated that the grand piano will be given in honor of former AHS music teacher Madeline Wood, who taught from 1955-67. Mrs. Wood is considered by many as the matriarch of piano and choral music at Ackerman School and Ricki Prewitt is herself a prodigy of early piano instruction from Madeline Wood.
 

     Here is a picture of a YAMAHA 6’7” Conservatory Series GRAND PIANO that we can place in the Ty A. Cobb Auditorium if we can raise $19,000 by September 1, 2004. You can learn more about this quality instrument at the Yamaha website. We can save thousands of dollars on what we would pay for a new one.

     I graduated from Ackerman School in 1954 and moved away in 1958. None of my children or grandchildren attended Ackerman School; however, I am still interested in keeping the school at the high standards that are being set and have already contributed to this worthwhile project. School budgets are being cut, making it even more difficult for them to keep teachers and programs going for the students. They need us now!

   Current and Future Generations At AHS Are Counting on Us

     We need to donate $17,000 by September 1, as the school has already received $2,000. The time is short, so please mail your generous donation to Ackerman High School today. Give out of your love and appreciation for Ackerman School. Make an important investment in the current and future generations of students at AHS.

     The reunion committee is pursuing every avenue we can think of to help reach this goal of $17,000 by September 1. I know we can count on you to send a donation to Ackerman High School today. Make your check payable to Ackerman High School and designate somewhere on your check that it is for the Grand Piano Fund. Please watch our county’s newspapers and this website – www.AckermanReunion.com – for updates.

   Working Together, We Can Do It!    

     I have one final request. Would you please forward this important email to everyone you know who has a connection (past or present) to Ackerman School? I believe that working together we can make this dream come true.

     I look forward to seeing you Saturday, April 30, 2005, when we will all get to see and hear the piano at the 2005 reunion. Call me at (601) 939-1378 if you have questions.

May God bless and keep you.

Kenneth R. Smith (54)
President, AHS Reunion

P.S. - We have a number of alumni logging in the "tag board" at our Weblog. I am pleased to announce that we now have a Ackerman Reunion Weblog and I invite you to visit the Site today. Bookmark our Weblog - http://bravenetbuddy.braveweblog.com - and return often to see who has checked in and add an update to the tag board or a post to the Weblog. We simply want to hear from everyone. If you will visit today, you will see where these alumni have logged in on the tag board: Paul Reed (55); Nancy Ballard Nicholas (67); Sharon McKnight Stevens (69); Debbie Sandifer Suggs (76); Kathy Ellis Holbrook (68); and others.