Summer Fund Drive 2010

Our Neutral Zone Summer Fund Drive is here! This annual drive provides essential support which allows the Neutral Zone to continue to create positive, high-quality, youth engagement opportunities throughout the year.

Click here to make your gift online today:

I want to thank you for supporting this place that has meant so much to me. I also hope you can find it in your heart to make another gift. Or if you have never donated, maybe you could give for the first time. The Neutral Zone needs your help to survive.

I can’t imagine my life without the Neutral Zone. All of the ways I express myself, whether creatively or in conversation, can be accredited to some skill I picked up in various programs at the Zone.

Writing is something I have always loved. But speaking to people is something I learned to appreciate at NZ. Combining these two things helped me discover my new love for performance poetry. Having the confidence to do something like read my own poetry in front of hundreds of people is amazing to me. I am not afraid to stand in front of a microphone and present myself to the world.

You can always tell NZ kids by the way they talk to adults: comfortably and with some skill. Before I used to hang out at the Zone, I would often get nervous speaking in public. But then I started to serve on the Board of Directors, and picked up an level of eloquence that people always compliment, which is very empowering for me.

Hard work has also never felt like so much fun. To put together Breakin’ Curfew, for example, we work so tirelessly on the show for eight months. On the day of the show, everyone goes crazy with relief and excitement. You can feel the energy and the pride from the teens and the staff the night of the show. It feels incredible. Putting on a show like this is such a huge accomplishment. We put so much into it, and it feels so worth it.

Being a young writer is incredibly intimidating. For me, the key to finding the courage to do it was joining a group of people who are as unendingly supportive people, namely the Volume kids and staff. Because of the knowledge and practice I gained in Volume, I was able to go to the National Youth Poetry Slam, called Brave New Voices. Meeting so many other kids from all over the United States, hearing their voices on stage and making friends with them in the dorms was an experience I will never forget. All of this is what has changed me. I can’t wait to go back this summer.

Something else I can’t wait to do this summer is work more with the Orpheum, Neutral Zone’s newly renovated, fully teen-run recording studio. From the beginning, I was part of a team led by teens to develop the business plan, help find funding and even paint the walls. Now I am the Orpheum’s Scheduling Manager. I deal directly with clients to book appointments and manage business arrangements – both teens and the general community. I have learned skills I never would have imagined I could pick up at my age — and they will stay with me for the rest of my life.

There’s one member of the Neutral Zone team who is part of every program I do, every opportunity I have had, an invisible member who is just as important as the energetic staff and supportive friends here at the Zone . . . that important team member is you.

Without your help, none of what I’ve been able to accomplish and learn at Neutral Zone these past years would have been possible. Thank you, again.

Can you please look into your heart and find a way to make a gift that will make all this possible for the next young person who shows up? And the next one?

A gift of $25 pays for a college application fee, or a day’s worth of art supplies. $125 covers a scholarship for a full year of programs for one teen. No matter what you can give, any amount makes a difference in someone’s life at Neutral Zone. I would know, because you’ve already made a difference in mine.

Sincerely,

Alia Persico-Shammas