Let's Keep Her Sailing!

e recognize that you receive many requests to donate money to charitable organizations. We ask you to consider the following factors that make Project Liberty Ship worthy of your donation.

1 November 2011

Dear Friend of the SS JOHN W. BROWN:

I'm sure you'll be glad to read that this is Project Liberty Ship's last fundraising drive of 2011! We're calling this fundraiser "Deck the Hull" for two reasons. First, of course, with the holiday season nearly upon us, decking the Hull, instead of the Halls, seems to be appropriate for our chosen venue. Second, the BROWN's hull consumed considerably more "boughs of dollars" at our recent drydocking than we had anticipated -- about $150,000 of them, in fact. Hence the need for this year-end appeal to help us cover the shortfall. To be sure, our earlier appeal, entitled "The Clean Plate Club," was highly successful, as was the more recent raffle. Had we not experienced the additional hull repairs found necessary in drydock, we would have paid our shipyard bill in full with funds on hand, thanks to your generosity.

As the old saying goes, you never know what's on the bottom 'til you drydock the ship. We had to replace two large sections of bottom plate, which required not only considerable welding but riveting as well. Our old friends, the riveters from Toledo, visited the BROWN again and worked their noisy magic. The result was a very successful drydocking, with all the other anticipated work accomplished in a timely manner. Our other friends at Colonna's Shipyard very generously gave us a $50,000 discount on their bill, which helped considerably with the bottom line.

Now we're asking you to help. Although our shipyard bill has been paid in full, we had to borrow from another "pot" to cover it and we need to refill that pot.

We are asking for a contribution of $50 or more and, in the spirit of the holiday season, we are offering a unique JOHN W. BROWN Christmas tree ornament to those of you who make a donation at the $50 level or higher.

On behalf of the hard-working crew of the BROWN, we thank you in advance for your continued generosity and wish you all the best for the holidays and for 2012!

Sincerely,

Captain Brian Hope,
Fundraising Chairman

You can make a donation in either of two ways:

1. You can make an immediate online donation using your credit card through an organization known as "Network for Good." In this case please click on the donation button below. You will be taken to the Network for Good website to complete your donation. (Note: the Network for Good donation page will open in a new browser window.)

2. You may use our donation form and mail a donation to Project Liberty Ship, using your credit card or personal check. Please print out the donation form, complete the form, and mail the form and your donation to Project Liberty Ship at the address shown at the bottom of the form.

In either case, Project Liberty Ship thanks you for your donation!