BY PAUL MITCHELL
North Country This Week

NORTH LAWRENCE – Students attending Deep Root Center East are engaged in a letter-writing campaign to raise $60,000 to purchase a church where they currently conduct classes and activities.

“The Center these youth attend is located in North Lawrence and they come from surrounding areas in St. Lawrence and Franklin counties. Several of them have been working on writing letters as well as other fundraising efforts to try to raise the money to purchase the space,” stated Angie Foster, Lead Staff at Deep Root Center East.

In a letter to North Country This Week, students Kohl Sheen, Jasmine Tilden and Ashlyn Tilden issued the following message to the community:

“Our names are Kohl, Jasmine, and Ashlyn and we are reaching out to you because we need your help. We are reaching out to you because you are from NNY too and you love to cook as much as we do!

We are homeschooled students from Northern New York who are supported by Deep Root Center East (DRC), in North Lawrence, New York. DRC is a Center for Self Directed Learning that provides me with resources, classes and materials that supplement my learning and the opportunity to engage socially with lots of other youth. DRC initially opened in Canton 9 years ago and as our numbers grew, we opened a second facility (DRC East) in North Lawrence.

We currently have 25 students at East and are renting an old church in our community that is for sale. We really appreciate the use of this space and have been welcomed warmly, but we really want to buy it and make it our own. Owning the space would allow us to use the space more effectively and give us the opportunity to personalize our Center with our own talents and creativity.

We are asking for your help to come up with the $60k that we need to make this happen. Your donation would guarantee that we always have a safe space to continue our education with the friends and mentors that we know. It would also help provide additional resources and materials to further our education.

You can contribute online at www.deeprootcenter.org or send it directly to our main Center at: Deep Root Center, 48 Riverside Dr, Canton, NY 13617

Thank you in advance for your generosity and support!”

Deep Root Center is based in Canton at 48 Riverside Drive.