|
President’s Message, January 4, 2011
Looking Backward: Highlights from 2010
The Ruth Institute moved forward with great confidence and enthusiasm in the year 2010, thanks to your help. In February, I got trapped in the “Snowmagedon” snow storm on the east coast. The four day delay in my return home resulted in an appearance on Fox News!
In March, the Ruth Institute participated in the Stand for the Family conference, a student initiative at Brigham Young University. This conference was the brainchild of BYU students who attended the Ruth Institute’s very first "It Takes a Family" conference. These students inspired the participation of literally hundreds of other students. We are proud to have played a small part in this marvelous student effort.
In June, then-Executive Director Jamie Gruber and I spent two days at a conference of the Women’s Division of the Church of God in Christ, which met in Los Angeles. We had the privilege of meeting twenty thousand African American women on fire for marriage!
In July, we joined our parent organization, the National Organization for Marriage, on their Summer for Marriage bus tour. In August, we held the ITAF Gala Dinner near LAX with Dr. Miriam Grossman as our keynote speakers. Some of our Friends with Wrong Ideas showed up, protested, and generated media coverage for us in Los Angeles, one of the largest media markets in the country! We had the youngest attendee ever at ITAF, little Miss Emily Hunsacker, who came with her parents!
(Note: our youngest ITAF member, Emily, front row, left.)
In November, I spoke at the Love and Fidelity conference at Princeton, and at the Jerusalem and Athens lecture series at Gordon College in Massachusetts. Then in December, I had the privilege of live-blogging from the federal courtroom of the Prop 8 trial. All of this activity was possible because of the support of people like you. Won’t you help us continue our work with a gift today?
Looking forward: Plans for 2011: The Reel Love Challenge morphs into a new, bigger challenge.
Please forward this part of the newsletter to young adults, aged 18-30!
The first phase of the Reel Love Challenge has been the video making competition. We are asking young adults, “Is lifelong love possible? And if so, how?” You can interview someone, or give your own ideas, or illustrate. The videos can be professional looking, or just done with a cell phone camera. We are more interested in the content, the thoughts, the ideas, than having Hollywood production quality.
We are also expanding the competition in two ways: The Reel Love Challenge is now open to young adults ages 18-30. Also, your video can be a minimum of 30 seconds, up to a maximum of 3 minutes.
You can submit as many entries as you want. (Be sure to tell your friends which one you want them to vote for!)
The deadline is February 1, and the first prize is $2,000. Go here for all the details.
There is still time to enter the Early Bird Contest! We are giving away $100 prizes to the first seven entries between now and January 6th. The best entry in that period will win a flip camera!
Now we are taking the Challenge to the next level: creating a marriage movement. We intend to begin filming young adults to get their perspective. We will be asking you, the next generation of young adults, to share your thoughts on why lifelong marriage matters to you, what obstacles you feel may be in the way of lifelong love, and how you plan to overcome those barriers.
Most of all, we are assembling groups of young adults to take the Reel Love Challenge. We are looking for young adults who are ready to commit themselves to lifelong love, for the good of their children, their spouses, and their communities. We know you can’t predict the future with perfect certainty. But we also know that you can commit to doing what you can to ensure the permanence of your own marriage.
No more messing around like the Baby Boomers. No more excuses. No more waiting for the government and the politicians to “do something.” It is time to get serious. It’s time to stop complaining about the sad state of marriage and to start doing something about it. Take the Reel Love Challenge!
“It is my hope and my wish to get married. When I get married, it is my intention to stay married for the rest of my life. I commit myself to doing all I can for the common good of my marriage and my family.”
If you are already married, take this version of the Reel Love Challenge:
“It is my intention to stay married for a lifetime. I commit myself to doing all I can for the common good of my marriage and my family.”
This very day, Tuesday, January 4th, students are meeting at the Marriot School of Business at Brigham Young University to take the Reel Love Challenge. We are planning visits to other colleges this spring.
Visits already scheduled: Wheaton College near Chicago; Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH; Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh; and Aquinas College in Nashville, TN. Contact us to get your school on the list.
Be part of the Marriage Movement, a young adult movement that cuts across religion, race and class. Take the Reel Love Challenge!
|
Jennifer Thieme is our new Director of Operations for the Ruth Institute. She will be responsible for keeping the Ruth Institute running smoothly. An independent businesswoman for almost 20 years, Jennifer served small businesses nationwide by preparing financial statements, providing bookkeeping services and training, and processing payroll, including for Dr. J before she founded the Ruth Institute! 
Nicole Kay joins the Ruth Institute as the new Director of Programs. She is excited to oversee the outreach efforts and academic programs of the Ruth Institute, and help mobilize the power of young adults to advocate for marriage and family.