[HeartStrongList] More Students, More Outreach and One Clarification

[heartstrong at heartstrong.org]

Hi everyone,

Just a clarification for those of you who had a question about Salpointe
Catholic High School.  The next to last paragraph in the last email SHOULD
have said this:

"HeartStrong did not initially reveal the name of the school because the
last time that there was major progress at a Catholic school like this
there was a lot of (nonHeartStrong) media attention and within a month the
progress was rescinded by an archbishop.  This new policy is now a
publicly known policy.  Students and parents are aware of the new policy."

If you need a complete copy of that email just go to our website
(http://www.heartstrong.org) and click on the link on the front page for
the full story.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>......................................

And now some thoughts to share with everyone from this our 20th Outreach
Trip.  At one of our recent educational forums a young man came up to me
after the program.  He identified himself as a current student at a public
university.  However, he had endured 8 years at Seventh-day Adventist
schools for grade and high schools.

Until his attendance at our forum, he had never heard of anyone trying to
reach out to students like he once was.  His words to us were, "I really
wish I would have known about your organization when I was struggling so
much in my SDA school."

After our presentation he said he felt a sense of urgency to reconnect
with some of his friends he had not spoken with from his high
school...these were other students who struggled with being gay just as he
had.  He said he felt a responsibility to make sure their lives were in
the right place when it came to self-acceptance.

Hearing his story and how he had absorbed the importance of
self-acceptance made the 13 hour drive and no sleep well worth it.  It is
times like that which help remind us of how little it takes to give
someone hope and how little it takes to empower others to do someone that
will help someone else.

So, we continue to do our work reaching one more student as often as we
can with what we are given to do it.

Marc Adams
volunteer Executive Director
HeartStrong Inc
heartstrong at heartstrong.org