In honor of the Chinese New Year tradition of giving hongbao, or money in red envelopes, to younger generations by their parents, grandparents, and neighbors to symbolize luck and wealth, Yinghua Academy Community Association annually asks for your support for enrichment experiences for the students and families of Yinghua Academy through The 2010 Red Envelope Campaign.

Every student benefits.
Every student at Yinghua Academy benefits from the artistic and scientific enrichment programs supported by the Yinghua Academy Community Association (YACA). Gifts to the annual Red Envelope Campaign help bring music, art and science experiences to every child and every classroom at Yinghua.

To bring these exceptional opportunities to our kids at Yinghua Academy, YACA collaborates with the premier arts and science organizations in the Twin Cities. Each of these partnerships is specifically selected and in some cases custom-designed in collaboration with Yinghua staff to complement the Core Knowledge Curriculum. At a time when many public schools have cut music and the arts, these opportunities are even more exceptional than ever.

What did last year's donations do? Your gifts to YACA in 2009 did the following:

• A new and highly popular partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota brought the best science educators to Yinghua's classrooms for a multi-week series on magnetism, electricity and forensic science.
• With volunteer assistance, brought works of art from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts collection into the classrooms for our kids to see, learn and experience first-hand.
• Provided our kids the fun of working and creating with clay, including making self-portrait tiles through a partnership with the Northern Clay Center.
• Guest poets, authors and others through the Young Audiences/COMPASS artists in the literary arts.
• Support of the ever-improving library at Yinghua by funding the part-time librarian.
• Engaged middle-school kids through a six week Children's Theatre Company (CTC) residency and brought all kids to a CTC performance.

What will this year's donations do? In addition to funding similar artistic and scientific partnerships for 2010-2011, gifts to The 2010 Red Envelope Campaign will provide continued and, in some cases, expanded support for Yinghua field trips. Gifts will also provide additional support for musical instruments, further strengthening the Yinghua music program. In each of these partnerships, our kids are engaged in artistic and scientific learning opportunities that enrich their classroom experiences and complement the Core Knowledge Curriculum.

Last year, YACA dedicated the overwhelming majority of its budget to these programs. Remaining funds cover the costs associated with other valuable projects. Parent education seminars have become increasingly popular and have included topics such as immersion education and parenting topics, both of which were requested by parents. Appreciated by teachers and parents alike, the recently launched classroom coordinators program continues to take shape. During the long summer break YACA also supports Chinese story hours, play dates in the park, and the annual back to school picnic for the entire Yinghua community.

Your charitable contribution provides the funding needed for our students to benefit from these important enrichment opportunities. This is why we need your help. Yinghua Academy could not do all of this without YACA - and YACA could not do it without you.

How much of my gift goes directly to support these enrichment programs?
Charitable donations to YACA are some of the most efficient and impactful gifts you can make. Over 98% of your gift goes to delivering programs. Most charitable organizations need to use about 24% of their gift income to pay for overhead costs. YACA relies on volunteers to do most of the work, so nearly all of your gift pays for programs that benefit students.

We know you agree that the enrichment programs made possible by contributions to YACA are important components of the high-quality education our kids enjoy at Yinghua Academy. We invite you to consider a gift to The 2010 Red Envelope Campaign to make sure that students and families will have these opportunities again this year. Your tax-deductible contributions make it happen. Please join with other enlightened supporters and make your gift today.