Fill Eleanor's Suitcase....Annual Fund 2009- 2010

The Board and Staff of The Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill (ERVK) are pleased to present to you the 2009-2010 Annual Campaign: Fill Eleanor's Suitcase. 

If you are someone who is an avid supporter of Eleanor Roosevelt, or would like to become one, we ask you to join us in activating the Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Legacy Program to honor a great woman and put Eleanor's shining example of humanitarian action "on display" for all the world to see.   

Mrs. Roosevelt carried the same suitcase as she traveled the globe as a fact-finder and a representative of the FDR administration. After the White House years, she traveled as a diplomat, United Nations delegate, and lifelong advocate for humanitarian concerns.

We like to imagine that Mrs. Roosevelt's suitcase carried more than her personal belongings.  For us, her "suitcase" was filled with humanity, principled leadership, respectful negotiation, peace, dialogue, empathy and diplomacy, bringing these with her wherever she travelled, and "wearing" these with whomever she met.

It is the contents of this "suitcase" that make it imperative that now, more than ever, we fully develop and implement The Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Legacy Program for boys, women and community, while expanding the very successful Girls Leadership Workshop.

ERVK is committed to acting on Mrs. Roosevelt's belief that people can enhance the quality of their lives and the lives of others through principled leadership and purposeful action based on sensitive discourse among people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.  We have done this with various programming, including the Girls Leadership Workshop, now in its 13^th year.  Pressing civic, social and economic issues indicate that now it the time to develop more leaders and community engagement opportunities in keeping with Mrs. Roosevelt's unique talents and skills.  

To do this requires vast resources:  resources to plan; resources to implement, resources to operate efficiently. 

Eleanor Roosevelt was guided by a set of values restated in ERVK's strategic plan- caring, sharing, integrity, leadership, collaboration, compassion, courage, and action.  Assuming that you are guided by these same or similar values, we cannot imagine a better incentive for supporting the Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Legacy Program for girls, boys, women and community.

Please act now:  Help us realize Mrs. Roosevelt's life's mission for a just, humane and peaceful world through principled leadership and community engagement. Click the "Ways to Give button" on the right and  fill "Eleanor's Suitcase" with a donation appropriate to your level of giving. And, with a click of the button on your right, you can give your friends, family and colleagues the opportunity to do the same.

Thank you for leading the charge to fill Eleanor's suitcase with overflowing goodness.

photo credit:  donated by Corbis-Bettmann