Sample Invitation Letter on your school letterhead See following page for additional ideas. Date Name Address City, State, Zip Dear Name: On (Month, Date , Year at Time) (school name) will be participating in ACES With-aFriend. ACES stands for All Children Exercising Simultaneously and the With-a-Friend designation includes you. Your attendance and participation at this event will demonstrate to our students that local leaders in our community also think physical activity and fitness are important. ACES is a worldwide celebration involving millions of children and more than 400,000 students across the state of Michigan who will all be physically active at (Time). A related story by the MSNBC News Service illustrates the severity of the problem. Heart disease and stroke kill about 40 percent of the population overall and heart disease is the No. 1 killer in most industrialized countries. But the same factors that can produce heart disease–obesity, poor diet and a lack of exercise–also can lead to diabetes, so people with diabetes carry an extra risk. “Just walking 30 minutes a day, reducing your weight by 10 to 15 pounds, can reduce the incidence of diabetes by 58 percent,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. Obviously, we want to motivate our children to be active everyday. There are a number of ways in which you can show your support and participate in this event. I would be happy to discuss the details with you at your convenience. The possibilities include: · · · · joining the children in our planned activities leading a group of children in a specific activity congratulating the children with high fives as they return to the school building after completing the event placing ACES With-a-Friend stickers on children
We look forward to including you in our celebration and hope you will be able to attend. Please call me at (your phone number) and let me know if you will be joining us. Thank you. Sincerely,
Your Name Your Position With School
Sample Invitation Letter Additional Ideas Addresses For assistance in locating names and addresses of local senators and representatives, the following State of Michigan websites will be helpful: www.house.state.mi.us and www.senate.state.mi.us. By the way, the Governor’s Council office will be supplying a list to all senators and representatives of the schools in their district who will be participating in ACES. Salutation Certain dignitaries need to be addressed in special ways. Here are some specifics that might help.
State Senators: The Honorable (name) Michigan State Senate P.O. Box 30056 Lansing, MI 48909 Dear Senator (name) Judges: The Honorable name Judge of the (court name) Address City, State, Zip Dear Judge (name) State Reps.: The Honorable (name) Michigan House of Representatives P. O. Box 30014 Lansing, MI 48909 Dear Representative (name) Mayor: Honorable (name) City of (name) Address City, State, Zip Dear Mayor (name) The
The Message The sample letter is provided to make your job a little easier, but you may have several things you would like to add. For instance, if you have your plans all worked out, it may be easier to state exactly how you would like this person to help rather than give a list of possibilities. It might also be a good idea to give them a date by which they should respond. The telephone number you give them may be something you want to think about. If you are a classroom teacher, it may be best to use the school office phone number. But if you have voice mail, you may want to use your own phone and extension. Other Things to Include Attaching a copy of the articles we’ve provided (see articles section) to your letter will help demonstrate the need for increased physical activity and might help convince your invitees to join you. Attaching a copy of previous media coverage might help attract the interest of those you are inviting. Your invitees would especially enjoy hand-written notes from students inviting them to the event along with your letter.
Thank You Letter
Here’s a couple of letters that can serve as a thank you to your ACES guests. It can be written by either your school’s ACES organizer or some of the students in your building. A sample for each is included.
Date Name Address City State Zip Dear Name Option 1-Written by the ACES organizer On behalf of (name of school), thank you for participating in ACES With-a-Friend. Your participation in our celebration helped emphasize that physical activity is important for everyone–an important message for children to learn. We hope the event was fun as well as educational for you. I have attached photos and media coverage from the festivities. Thanks again for your help. Option 2-Written by Students The students at (your school name) thank you for attending our ACES event. We hope you had as much fun as we did. We are enclosing a photograph of the event for you to keep and a copy of the story that was in the newspaper. Sincerely,
ACES Organizer or Student Name Your Position with School or Class and Grade of Student