Dear Preschool Supporter:

So much about the holiday season reflects the child in us all. What better time to be a four-year-old than during the holidays! Everywhere you look there is something brilliant, something wonderful. I think back to the excitement of December when I was a teacher in the classroom. Children are planning their holiday programs, learning songs, making gifts and cards, and enthusiastically taking in the magic all around them. I was always caught up in it and I still am.

The 4th Annual LAUP Book and Toy Drive began on November 25 and will run until December 14. Collecting toys from both within LAUP as well as externally through provider preschools, local chambers of commerce, and various supporters, provides hundreds of toys to children in need in our communities. To date, the drive has filled large sleigh-themed toy boxes at the LAUP offices in downtown Los Angeles. New, unwrapped books and toys for kids of all ages are popping out of the boxes just waiting to find new homes.

Multiple teams at LAUP are working on the 2013 Preschool Teacher of the Year Awards (PTOTY) which will take place in April at the Globe Theatre in Universal Studios Hollywood. The preschool teacher nomination applications have been sent to both LAUP and non-LAUP sites and ECE offices across Los Angeles County. LAUP Board Member Matt Rezvani, who is the event committee chair, has helped to recruit an impressive committee made up of corporate and community leaders who will partner with us in securing sponsorship and promoting the event.

December 3rd marked the beginning of a new two-year session of the state legislature with a remarkably different landscape in Sacramento. Due in large part to redistricting and the new open primary system, 38 new members joined the Assembly, nearly half of the 80-member legislative body. These new members are expected to stick around longer than their predecessors; a change to the state's term limits law allows members to remain in either house of the Legislature for up to 12 years. Another radical difference will be that Democrats will hold a 2/3 majority in both the Assembly and Senate for the first time since 1883. This allows them to wield the power to increase taxes (with the Governor's approval) and place initiatives on the ballot without winning Republican support. Democratic legislative leaders have cautioned that they will not move to increase state taxes this year, but may seek to make it easier for citizens to vote to increase their own taxes by lowering the threshold for local ballot initiatives from 2/3 to 55%.

LAUP Circle of Friends- Every Gift Counts

We are launching a new charitable program this month that will provide benefits to LAUP annual donors. The Giving Circle is an individual charitable giving program which will help to support and increase access to quality preschool for children in Los Angeles County. The gifts will go directly to our provider preschool programs. Gifts of support can go a long way to improve the experience of a child in our preschools:

1. A gift of $50 will provide 8 books for a preschool classroom library.
2. A gift of $100 can pay for two tricycles for outdoor time.
3. A gift of $250 will provide lunch and snacks for a classroom of children for one month.
4. A gift of $500 will establish a brand new library for a classroom with at least 75 books.
5. A gift of $1,000 can pay for a year’s worth of meals for a preschool student.

The program is also designed to provide valuable benefits to our generous donors such as special discounts, branded gifts, exclusive invitations to annual special events, and much more.

For more information about our Giving Circle and other gift opportunities, please contact Josh Alvarenga at 213-416-1336 or jalvarenga@laup.net.