Taylor Middle School

700 11th Street
Lovington, New Mexico 88260
505-396-5211

                  October 30, 2000

To Whom It May Concern:

I attended a "Career Dreams" workshop in Lovington, NM about two years ago. I learned in that workshop that I could accomplish just about anything I wanted as long as I found the right people to help and I applied myself to the problem. One of my dreams was to start an "After-School Program" at my school. After a couple of false starts I found the right people and we set to work. We wrote fifty-five letters asking for donations and/or grant applications. We received numerous answers -- mostly no, but we kept on working. We did get one donation for $370. Next, we learned about a grant from the State Education Department in New Mexico. We attended grant workshops and early this school year, we wrote our first grant application.

We now had a clear plan of what we wanted and how to go about it. We learned last week that we received our grant for $15,000. This will be enough to start our After-School Program. We also have the confidence to try to write more grants to increase our funds so that we'll be able to handle more students in our program.

We are excited and enthusiastic about our program and know that this can't help but benefit the students in Lovington. So many of our students go home to empty homes after school and we wanted to address this problem.

This program has been a dream of mine for many years. I kept saying that I wouldn't retire until I had accomplished everything I'd set out to. For years I just talked about the program with no clear idea of how to get there. Then along came "Career Dreams" and suddenly I had the knowledge and the enthusiasm to accomplish my dream. I will probably retire this year with thirty-five (35) years of teaching behind me. I have seen my dream come true and I thank the "Career Dreams" program for their help with this.

Sincerely yours,

Dixie Dale Drummond
Taylor Middle School