A Letter from the GPA Mom

First, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Louise Honey and I am a full-time staff member and the “Mom” position of GPA. This is my second year with GPA and my daughter Natasha was on GPA for two years – graduating one and a half years ago. I have four children whose ages range from as young as 16 to as old as 30 years old.

This is the first of many letters that I will be writing to give you information about your son or daughter’s year on GPA. My plan is to explain all of the activities on GPA, introduce the staff, share the calendar of the coming year, inform of opportunities for parents to get involved, share websites with access to photos and activities your child will be participating in, etc. I will be doing this over the coming weeks. Another one of the areas I work with is the IW department which is in the field with your children and is reporting constantly on any and all situations.

Our 3 main learning objectives for this year are: 1.) Develop a Relationship with God and True Parents 2.) Understand, apply and share the Divine Principle 3.) Experience public life and leadership

We are presently developing our Parents Association which will have representatives from each area you live in, and will be another resource of information and contact for each of you. I will make sure you get the list of who is the representative in your area.

Right now all of your children have just completed their first 10-day period of fundraising after the completion of the Kick-Off Workshop and have been in workshops over the past weekend in Chicago, Georgia and Michigan. The workshops focused on understanding their experiences, the internal purpose of Fundraising and Foundation of Faith. They had opportunities to practice teaching the DP, play sports and spend quality time together.

I had the opportunity to participate in the Atlanta Workshop and listen to their testimonies this past weekend. It became evident that the internal purpose and lessons that they are learning while fundraising is guiding them to develop a relationship with God and True Parents, understand and apply the Divine Principle and help their growth as individuals. Each participant gave a 5-7 minute DP lecture that each of you would have been so proud to witness. We were also able to support a new plant church in Georgia and bring energy and love to them.

A few notes to point out;

1. It is very important that you buy your child’s plane ticket for winter break out of San Antonio, Texas on December 23rd and back to San Antonio on January 8th as soon as possible. Last year we experienced ticket prices doubling and more – very quickly – and making it almost impossible for participants to fly home.

2. We will be sending you the GPA year calendar soon with all the dates and activities GPA will be doing.

3. We are looking for parent volunteers to go overseas in January. Elissa Allen, the Overseas Coordinator will be sending you the application form in a couple of weeks.

4. Please check out GPA’s Websites to see video’s and info about your children at Generationpeaceacademy.org and GPAfamily.com. We recently shared a Kick-Off Workshop Music video. You can access the video here: https://vimeo.com/76487234

5. I will be introducing you to all the GPA staff over the next few weeks. Roland Platt is the Director along with 10 other full-time staff.

6. This year we have 89 first years, an incredible group of 25 second years and 5 third years who we could not imagine being able to run this program without.

7. We will be going to 6 different countries this year, mainly focused on 2020 nations in South America and the Caribbean.

Lastly, I would like to introduce you to Thanh Le our Operations and Finance Coordinator, who is the main connecting point of communications for all of GPA. You may reach him by email for any questions you may have at info@ generationpeaceacademy.org. Please email when possible and call when necessary. For situations where you feel you would like to talk to a parent about certain situations, I am available by email anytime, we will both always be available to answer any of your concerns and address yours or your children’s needs.

Included is a list of the teams, team captains and areas your son/daughter is presently in as of Wednesday October 16, 2013. It was always a comfort to me to know where my daughter was and what state she was visiting.

Please look at this video update from our GPA Director, Roland Platt: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9- d_K_iIOE&feature=youtu.be

May Heavenly Parents Blessing be with you and your families,

Louise Honey GPA, Assistant Director