About two months ago, an invitation arrived in the mail from the People to People Ambassador Program. The letter was formal, bore the presidential seal on it and was addressed to Matthew. As the parent, I opened the letter and read through it. My first thought, it was a scam. Hey, I'm from New York. I suspect everything is a scam until I am able to verify the information. Armed with the letter, I logged into the website, read the information. I did further due diligence (did I not tell you that I am in the legal field as well?), called the number furnished in the letter and peppered the representative on the phone with a ton of questions.I made some other phone calls, found out that the organization is in fact, legit and has been around for about 50 years. It was started by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for children to learn about different cultures. It was his effort to promote world peace if children can learn to understand and appreciate different cultures. Each year, children are nominated by teachers or other means and go through a rigorous process. We received the invitation to go to the open house and meet some of the kids who have participated in the program. I took Tony and Matthew with me and to my surprise, Matthew was very excited about being invited and really wanted to participate.
Wait. Not so fast. There was a whole process that needed to be completed before you even find out if you have been selected to be one of the 40 delegates from the Connecticut area.
I reached out to Mr. Monteith, Matthew's favorite teacher from Shanghai, reached out to a teacher at his current school and roped an adult (who shall remain nameless - and no, it wasn't Tony or me) into writing letters of recommendations for Matthew. Matthew had to write an essay about his favorite activities and then had to appear before the review board for his interview.
We found out that he has been formally accepted into the program. Thus is why my organs are now up for sale. This will be a 20 day journey through Europe for Matthew and 39 other delegates. He will have the chance to visit France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. That is 20 days without my child in the house. Tony and I will be experiencing the empty nest syndrome early. The cost of this nomination, quite costly. I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze the budget in order to make this trip a reality for my child. As a parent, you will do anything for your child. I mean anything. So if you know anyone who is in need for very healthy organs, give me a call. The next sale will be my vast collection of designer shoes and bags. Look for the signs leading up to my house for the yard sale.
