The Apprentice: Collinsville

Today I'm posting a letter written by a young man I'm proud to know. He also happens to be a fellow member of the Collinsville Jaycees. I need not go further because the letter is self-explanatory. I've considered summarizing this letter, but I don't believe I could do so without diminishing the significance of it's content. I have made a few changes but they were mechanical.
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Dear Community Partner,

Good afternoon. My name is Jed Robbins, and I'm 20 years young.

I'm writing you on behalf of the Collinsville Connection, a group that a couple of my friends and I started with the purpose of stimulating youth involvement in the community, providing resources to allow residents to have their voices heard, and to continue a close and insightful connection to the city of Collinsville. Since we created The Collinville Connection in January 2009, we've seen the group grow from three of us to over 1,900 members, and we've hosted a number of events and fundraisers to address problems that we've noticed throughout the community.

As a result of getting involved and getting others involved, I was recently named one of Suburban Journals "30 under 40", which is a project that the Suburban Journals does to honor young people who are making a difference in their communities throughout the Metro East area. Although I'm honored to be included in such a prestigious group of individuals, the things that The Collinsville Connection does are not about me. They are about the community, and we need the community's help for our next project: " The Apprentice: Collinsville."

"The Apprentice: Collinsville" Scholarship Competition is a collaborative venture among the Collinsville Connection, students in the Collinsville High school Class of 2011, and a wide range of local entities, organizations and businesses. The concept-modeled after the hit reality T.V. show "The Apprentice"- is to have 14 students from CHS Class of 2011 (selected from previously submitted online applications) compete in a series of of community service based challenges, which will benefit a number of groups around the community.

The challenges are also structured to help students develop as leaders. The challenges encourage and emphasize the following: Networking, organization, creativity, courteousness, decision making, self-control, respect professionalism, responsibility, communication, cooperation and teamwork. Basically, the concept is to help students help themselves by helping the community.

Each challenge will be structured in such a way that-after each task-there a winning team and a losing team. The members of the winning team will remain in the running to become "The Apprentice: Collinsville" Scholarship Winner. However, the same cannot be said for the losing team. Based on overall performance, one member of the losing team will be "fired," and he or she will no longer be a contestant in "The Apprentice: Collinsville" Scholarship Competition, and-consequently-he or she will no longer be in the running to be the winner of "The Apprentice: Collinsville." Therefore, "The Appentice: Collinsville" will start in August 2010 (with 14 competitors) and end May 2011 (with two competitors).

Once the final two competitors have been determined, there will be a finale event called "The Boardroom." At this event, the final two contestants will compete in their final challenge, a winner will be determined and all scholarships acquired from the entirety of the competition will be distributed. The "Boardroom" Finale Event is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 8th, 2011 at 7:00pm.

There are several lucrative opportunities for community partners/sponsors. For more information about these and other sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jed Robbins at (618)-558-3622 or jedrobbins@yahoo.com.

Community sponsoring will go toward funding the various community involvement challenges, and providing rewards for the winning teams (including the college scholarships for the final two contestants-$2,500 for the winner and $1,000 for the runner-up) and consolation prizes for the eliminated contestants.

Thank you for your consideration,

Jed A. Robbins
731 Bond Ave
Collinsville, 62234
Cell:(618)-558-3622
Home:(618)-344-6416
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I posted this letter for Jed because I'm a Collinsville resident and I want to do all I can to guide the community's youth away from the mistakes I've made.

I hope local businesses and other entities will contribute to the noble undertaking. I will do all I can.

Always real;
Supaman Tion Terrell