Hello, friends of home education and Wisconsin CHEA,

 

    I am writing to remind you that in THREE SHORT WEEKS Wisconsin CHEA will be hosting its first-ever FAMILY FUN FAIR featuring the CHEA CHARITY AUCTION.

   By now, all of you should have received a postcard alerting you to this event. If you have not, please go to our website to check out the information.

   Now, to my question:  do you believe in home education?  Of course you do, or you wouldn't be making the sacrifices you are making to be sure that your children have the high quality education you are giving them!!

   If you do believe in home education as a tool to allow you to exercise your parental freedoms here in Wisconsin to choose the education your child receives, and to allow you to teach your children what you believe God is directing you to teach them, then it is VERY IMPORTANT for you to support your statewide home education ministry!!

    That is where we come in. We are here to SUPPORT and PROMOTE home education in the state of Wisconsin. We are here to help you and to make sure that home education not only stays legal here in Wisconsin, but we are here to help the general population see that home education is a great choice for educating children here, and that it is working!! Home educators are scoring high in not only academics, but socially as well!!

      I know that most of you think of CHEA when it comes to spring conference, where we give you loads of great speakers, good curriculum choices, and help you to save money through our statewide used book sale.

     But, please remember that CHEA is here working behind the scenes ALL YEAR LONG!! We field thousands of calls per year-- from the press, legislators, school officials, and most importantly, the home schoolers themselves. We continue to sound the cry that HOME EDUCATION WORKS, and that God is directing His people to continue to choose home education to guide children from their childhood to adulthood as they become godly, honest, hardworking, intelligent, patriotic citizens in their communities.

      In order for us to continue to operate all year long, we realized that it takes more than just the income from spring conference to do this. Costs are going up all over the place, from transportation, to printing, to phone, to supplies...

     The board of directors has done everything in their own power to cut corners in many, many areas, and they have decided that they DO NOT want to raise prices- not for the attendees, not for the vendors!! So, they have come up with some ways to earn money for CHEA outside of the conference.

    

     By spreading the word about the Family Fun Fair to others, the burden of contributing finances to Wisconsin CHEA can be spread around to a great number of people. That is why we made sure that we would have activities and get auction items that would be attractive to ALL people-- so that your friends, neighbors, relatives, and church family could enjoy a family-friendly activity day, and help to support us at the same time.

    

      So, what can you do to show your support and love for Wisconsin CHEA??

 

1-  PRAY for us-- pray that the Lord brings lots of people to this event, and that we have a beautiful day!! Also pray that the Lord gives us the strength and time to complete all the tasks we have in front of us to make this a success.

 

2- Be sure to ATTEND the Family Fun Fair-- Saturday, July 26 from 10 am to 7 pm at Fox River Park in Waukesha, WI-- we know that gas prices are ridiculous right now, but if you can only take ONE trip this summer-- and do ONE exciting activity-- make it this one-- spend the whole day with us-- come prepared to support us by buying concessions, eat a meal with us-- hot dogs, hamburgers, brats-- treat the kids to our treats- cotton candy, sno- cones, popcorn!! Come prepared to bid on some items in the auction-- we have over 100 items- from home school items to vacation packages to sports memorabilia, and everything in between!! Folks have been VERY generous in their donations-- and now we are praying that all of our CHEA supporters will get behind this effort, and be very generous in their attendance and their dollars!!

 

3-  Bring someone with you, and TELL AT LEAST 10 PEOPLE about this event-- as I said before, we don't want to put this entire financial burden on the home schoolers in Wisconsin. We all have family members, neighbors, church family and friends that would LOVE to take their children to a FAMILY-FRIENDLY event such as this!! So, spread the word!! And, please, don't focus on JUST families with children- tell folks whose kids are grown- be sure to tell grandma and grandpa-- because these folks will definitely be interested in our auction items-- we have SO MANY wonderful items for everyone!!!

 

4-  Help us to advertise-- again, I can't stress enough how important it is for you to promote this event-- the more people we get to attend, the HIGHER SAVINGS it will be for you in the future-- the proceeds from this event will help us to KEEP OUR COSTS DOWN at each and every conference in the future. If this event is successful, we would love to do it each and every year!! We have a poster and a flyer on our website. Please, go to our website at www.wisconsinchea.com and go to the Family Fun page-- there you will see all the latest information-- and you will see a link that will enable you to print out our flyer and poster. Hand them out around the neighborhood, hand them out to your family and friends, and PLEASE go to your church and ask if they would help to support us by allowing you to hang the poster on the bulletin board, and perhaps even to put it in the bulletin!  If you have the time, please go to some local businesses and ask if they would hang the posters- many businesses will be willing to do this!!

 

5-  Encourage children from ages 11-14 and 15-18 to ENTER OUR CONTESTS!! Right now, we have very few entries!! We have wonderful prizes in each contest- in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for each individual age group listed above.

Our categories are:  ART,   PHOTOGRPHY,   CREATIVE WRITING,   and   BAKING!!

 

WE NEED ENTRANTS!! WE WANT TO GIVE AWAY THE GREAT PRIZES WE HAVE FOR THE WINNERS!!

 

The deadline for contestants to send in their entry forms is NEXT MONDAY, JULY 14.  Contest packets are available on the website!!

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.

Please pray about this event and pray about how you can support CHEA through this event.

 

Remember that this event will take place RAIN OR SHINE!! We have lots of great games planned for kids of all ages. The children from ages 3-10 will each take home a quality prize, and every child is guaranteed a nice prize, while supplies last (we have purchased 700 prizes, so we don't think we'll run out, but you never know!!)

 

The older kids won't be bored, because we have sand pit volleyball, football toss, and Milwaukee Brewer bean bag toss games.

 

Check the website periodically for updates. We will be able to publish a schedule of events soon. We are still waiting for some groups to let us know if they are going to be doing presentations.

 

If you have a group of home schoolers that would like to put on a presentation of music, drama, etc. please let me know. We do have a few time slots still available.

 

Again, thank you for your time, and PLEASE MAKE THIS A PRIORITY IN YOUR SUMMER PLANS!!

 

Don't forget-- THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY-- SATURDAY, JULY 26-- FOX RIVER PARK IN WAUKESHA, WI.

 

 

 

In Christ,

 

Jan Gnacinski