This Month in MADP
Urgent
Update!!
Tragedy does not take a holiday. On
December 29, 2011, in the midst of the Christmas season, the
statewide office of MADP was destroyed by a fire. The MADP office
was housed in the historic Westport Presbyterian Church in Kansas
City.
This is a devastating loss not only to
the Presbyterian congregation, but to the entire Westport community.
The Presbyterian Church was a community hub and was home to arts
organizations and social services groups, like MADP, that serve the
larger community. The void left by this fire will be difficult to
fill.
This tragedy has dealt a serious blow
to our organization. While MADP has not been allowed into the
building to inspect our office, it is very likely that we have lost
most of our office equipment as well as our stockpile of literature
and much of our written archives. Fortunately our staff had
important information, including our MADP database, on computers
located off the church premises.
Of particular concern for MADP is our
recent fund appeal. Because of the Christmas holidays and accrued
vacation time, our part-time staff had not been in the office this
week to open mail. It is very possible that some end-of-year
donations may have been lost in the fire. If you know of anyone who
may have recently sent in a donation to MADP, please have them
contact Kathleen at 816-931-4177 or kathleen@madpmo.org
to be sure the donation was received.
The destruction caused by this fire
will put a severe strain on our limited resources. MADP had
planned an active year for 2012. We have many programs planned
around the state to continue to bring to light the alternatives to
our flawed death penalty system. We have many activities scheduled
around Reggie Clemons—a Missouri case with strong evidence of
wrongful conviction. We will continue to point out the
irresponsibility of maintaining an expensive and ineffective death
penalty system while our state has a red-slashed state budget.
We need your help now more than
ever! Please consider a monetary donation to MADP at this time. Your
donation will help us to recover from this difficult setback while
allowing us to continue our efforts to end the death penalty in our
state.
Thank you for your generosity and
on-going support for MADP. May each of you enjoy many blessing and
much prosperity in the New Year.
Best regards,
Rita Linhardt
MADP, Board Chair
