Spring 2008 Volume 104 Issue 2 : letters
Good News For The New Year!
To our Vassar Family: First of all, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for your unwavering encouragement and support. As recipients of the 2007 AAVC Spirit of Vassar Award, we treasure the honor and have wonderful memories of our time at the reunion. The article in the Vassar Quarterly [“Rebuilding New Orleans,” Fall 2007] helped to further highlight our needs and efforts. We have heard from alums both near and far who are joining with us in our work to educate our city’s underprivileged children. With that said, we are happy to report that in December 2007 the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved our nonprofit for a charter! Beginning in August of this year, we will be operating the Crocker Arts and Technology School, an elementary public charter school. A special thank you to Olga Guardia Smoak ’61 and Shaun Barkley Rafferty ’76 for their continued service as members of our board. To learn more about our nonprofit, Advocacy for the Arts and Technology in New Orleans, Louisiana, Inc., we encourage you to visit our website, www.atnola.com, and join with us in making a difference in our children’s lives and in this city’s rebirth.
We are also glad to report that the work to rebuild our church has begun, in spite of the severe obstacles that have hampered the church’s ability to operate when the congregation is scattered. At least 70 percent of the pre-Katrina membership is still displaced in other parts of the state and country, and other challenges exist; but we are able to hold services in a borrowed sanctuary, and our faith is strong. We are hoping to reenter our sanctuary in about two to three months.
Rev. Dr. Robert B. Jackson ’77
Grisela Alejandro Jackson ’78
New Orleans, Louisiana