This is your last newsletter from Save Our Scouts unless you tell us otherwise. You are receiving this email because you signed our petition last year. We have decided that we are going to do things differently with email. Instead of making you send us an email to be removed from our list, you will be removed unless you send us a reply asking to stay on the Newsletter list. Just write in the subject line "Merry Christmas" And we will keep sending you Around the Campfire newsletters.
We have had a good year at SOS and we plan on having a much better year in 2002. There is still much work to be done. Councils across the country are still seeing a shortfall in funds. The Milwaukee County Council will be forced to shutdown some of it's programs like the "Campership Program" if we don't help. The Campership Program provides funds for scouts who cannot go to summer camp because their parents can't afford it. SOS is sending money to Milwaukee to keep that program alive.
Congratulations to Congressman Hilleary and Senator Helms. Good job to all of you who encouraged the Senate to support the Boy Scouts and the amendment to the Education Bill that has made it through conference and will be signed by the President early in January. The amendment supports the Scouts continued access to public schools. One more battle won! But the war is far from over.
Help us to continue to provide support for the Councils who are under attack. Please read the letter below.
Dear Friends and Supporters of Scouting and Save Our Scouts,
As you know, our ongoing mission is to defeat the efforts of less than 2% of the US population represented by the now politically empowered gay/lesbian lobby in their attempt to effectively overturn the decision of the U.S.Supreme Court upholding the right of the Boy Scouts not to accept avowed homosexuals as Scout leaders. Their acts of reverse discrimination are already well documented, and they continue their vicious attempts to deny funding for Scout troops as well as access to public facilities for their meetings and events.
These attacks on our principles, our way of life, and the future of Scouting are no less vicious than the attacks by the terrorists on 9-11. Simply replacing these funds for the troops being denied funding is something we will continue to do, but if sufficient money were coming into SOS on a regular basis, we could then afford to go to the courts and give these activists cause to reconsider their efforts if we were able obtain a few rulings against them involving penalties and fines.
To support this effort and put an end to the carnage being done by these domestic terrorists, I am today announcing the launch of a new funding campaign developed for SOS by The Seedlings Foundation of Sanford Florida. While creating the potential for virtually unlimited monthly residual revenue for the SOS war chest, the cost to you, our supporters is nothing, and may in fact save you some money.
The best way to describe residual revenue might be to look at a case you may already be familiar with. In the forties, during WWII, Irving Berlin rewrote a song he had written some years earlier to thank our Country for accepting him as an immigrant, and permitting him to do what he did best, write songs. The first time it was played over the radio it became an overnight phenomenal hit nationally. The song of course, was God Bless Americasung by Kate Smith. To this day, every time the song is played commercially, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America get a check. You see, Irving Berlin had already donated the royalties from that song to them in perpetuity.
By the same token, what if every time you picked up your phone and called someone long distance, and knew that out of every dollar you spent on that call, SOS would receive 10 cents towards the cost of our mutual goal? How about the same deal when your pager went off, you made a cellular call, used a calling card, accessed the internet, or purchased something online you were looking for, and at a discount, and with no sales tax? The Seedlings Foundation has made this possibility a reality for us TODAY by giving you an option to select a national provider of these services that is willing to pay the kind of money no other corporate entity will to a charitable trust that in turn will donate virtually 100% of that revenue to SOS.
The question now is, will you help us? Will you take the few minutes to accomplish the aggravating steps involved in moving your long distance service to another carrier for a cause we know you care about? Excel Communications will make the transition as painless as possible with the able assistance of our Seedlings Project Director- former Scout, Air Force Viet Nam Vet, and Pan Am Pilot, Captain Ted Neff. Will you visit our link to our incredible new e-commerce site (www.excelir.com/saveourscouts) provisioned by Excel, which includes information on all their products and services, a super store with over a million discounted items from kid stuff to computers, and a shopping mall with over 600 store catalogs you can shop in with just one shopping cart. Avoid the crowds and parking lots! Do your Christmas shopping here, and help send a Boy Scout to camp at the same time. And the good news is you only have to do it once!
As I see it my friends, there are two choices to consider here:
1. You can do nothing, just continue to use the service you are already paying for, and support the causes of that company, whatever they may be. (Be aware that ATT, MCI and Sprint are on record for supporting homosexual and/or pornographic causes.), or:
2. You can volunteer to try the services of Excel, an apolitical company* because of the nature of its marketing plan, extend your support to SOS beyond your normal annual donation without reaching into your pocket, and thereby become part of this phenomenal stewardship plan to accomplish our goal at no additional expense to you or SOS..
* [Excel does support fundraising for non-controversial projects like the 9-11 fund, and on November 12th it was announced that Excel Communications would again become the Exclusive National Telecommunications Sponsor for the Toys for Tots 2001 Campaign. See: www.excel.com]
Before condemning this program out of hand, consider that the numbers are compelling!
10% of an average $30 long distance bill is only $3, but if each of you will "VOTE YES", and help us reach our goal of 100,000 SOS long distance customers by this time next year, the revenue being recovered from your long distance bills alone for the Save Our Scouts Funding Trust would be $300,000 monthly, or $3.6 Million per year!
Think what a blessing it would be knowing you were a part of this tremendous effort to fund our beleaguered Scouts, and that it actually didn't cost you or SOS anything you weren't going spend anyway, so Please, just do it!
Your phone bill is your ballot.
God Bless, Gavin
Option 2: [Click here] To download a self enrollment guide to sign up over the phone.
Option 3: Contact our Seedlings Foundation Project Director, Capt. Ted Neff (PanAm Ret.) tedneff@myexcel.com, for personal assistance in signing up in a 3 way call with Customer Service. You can call his office toll free at 1-877-722-9716. If he is unable to take your call, please leave a clear message with your Name, Phone number, Best time to call, and he WILL get back to you.