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<DIV>To my friends in the SCA in the area...</DIV>
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<DIV>I want to thank all of you for your friendship, your support, your care, and your help during 2009. It hasn't been an easy year for many people in our area, me among them, and it is the support from all of you that has kept us all going. We may be a little battered, but we are still standing.</DIV>
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<DIV>However, I have a suggestion -- let us focus on the future, instead of just the past. An odd request, perhaps, for an organization that is based on the study of the past, but relevant. We have an uncertain world out there, but we also have one incredible advantage -- each other. And focusing on only the past diverts us from the future -- one that allows us to remember, study, and love much of the past, but doesn't keep us from building on it toward a better future.</DIV>
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<DIV>So many of us are very fortunate -- we have roofs over our heads, food on our tables, the love of our family and friends. We have the freedom to work, express our opinions, to vote, to study what we want, and to go where we want. There are so many who do not. </DIV>
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<DIV>I'd like to make a suggestion then. I would really like to see all of our local groups find one mundane organization that needs some help -- from homeless shelters to food pantries, orphanages, charities, and other groups devoted to helping others, and make a donation. It can be a group activity, or just a gathering of friends -- and it can be donation of money and/or supplies, to just time. But even those of us, like me, without much cash have talents or other ways to contribute. And many contributing even a small amount of either time or money adds up to a lot. This is my New Year's resolution...to find a way to help others. I'd love it if some of my friends would join me.</DIV>
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<DIV>Yours in service, quite literally,</DIV>
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<DIV>HL Saqra al-Kudsi</DIV>
<DIV>aka Jackie Saunders</DIV></BODY></HTML>