Friends and Family,
Many of you know that I serve on the board for the Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools in Madison (GSAFE).
This year, GSAFE is hosting its third Walk-Run-Eat fundraiser, and our family is hoping to raise at least $2,500 for the cause. Will you help Team Halsey-Milhaupt—and support the programs of GSAFE—with a pledge?
Thanks partly to organizations like GSAFE, schools today offer a better environment for LGBT students than when I was in high school. But it's still far from perfect. Every day Malcolm and Julian still hear "that's so gay" in the hallways and in the schoolyard. And every day LGBT students and students who are simply perceived as gay are being harassed, intimidated, bullied or worse in our schools. Studies show that LGBT students are at a significantly higher risk than straight students for missing school, lower academic performance, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and smoking.
GSAFE is the only organization of its kind working in Wisconsin schools today. We provide specialized trainings for educators and school administrators on "teaching tolerance" in the schools. We also work with hundreds of middle and high school LGBT youth and their allies who share a passion for social justice and want to ensure that their school communities are safe for LGBT youth—and for all students.
As a GSAFE board member, I have seen for myself the impact that these students have in our schools and in our Wisconsin communities. School by school, these extraordinary youth are creating the change that we all want to see in our state and in our world.
We hope you'll consider making a pledge to support our family's effort to raise money for this important and very personal goal: To ensure that every LGBTQ student is a safe student and a student who knows that somebody cares.
Thanks so much for your consideration.
With love,
...Linda, Mary, Malcolm and Julian
(Team Halsey-Milhaupt)
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone (below) who has donated on-line. And thanks to Kathleen Sell, Dave and Kathy Mack, Linda and Alan Dietrich, Debbie and Morgan Van Horne, Shawn Cox and Jaimie and Carole Grunow who have made cash/check donations.