Our organization has seen a lot of growth in the last year. When we first founded iFAMILY in 2010 we had around 30 families attending. We now have 58 families with many more interested. With these current 58 families, we have nearly 200 children, many of them attending classes.

We had 46 mentors this year with 25 being NEW mentors who have stepped up and added their talents to the success of iFAMILY. There were 51 Mom Schools offered throughout this year.

We have seen a lot of growth in the culture of iFAMILY and some wonderful events that have strengthened our group and increased friendships. We enjoyed, among other things:

• Perfect Pie Potluck in November
• Amazing Performances of The Canterville Ghost in December
• Shakespeare students will be performing Two Gentlemen of Verona in May;
• The iTEEN committee has had some fun and worthwhile activities throughout the year, the youth planned together under the direction of Keri King and it has been a good leadership experience
• We will have the chance to participate in our first “Cultural Literacy Bee” on May 22nd
• Five individuals will have the opportunity to receive LEMI training in Salt Lake this summer, which will in turn enrich our offerings at iFAMILY for the school year 2013-2014;
• iFAMILY Orchestra has been started and is progressing rapidly.

In order to keep growing our culture and reaching to meet our vision and mission we have some goals that we are already working toward. Some of these include:

• Making the Cultural Literacy Bee and other “bees” annual events to be anticipated by scholars;
• We are planning for a Science Fair for all ages this coming fall and want to make that an annual event as well;
• We would also like to see a Speech Festival for all ages become an annual event at iFAMILY;
• We are still working hard to bring LEMI training to our area for summer of 2014.

We belong to an amazing organization and we have truly been blessed in this endeavor. In all that we are doing I believe we are striving for the same things Benjamin Franklin mentioned when he expressed a hope that the academic institution he wanted to bring to his community would, “help students obtain ‘an inclination joined with an ability to serve mankind, their country, friends, and family; which ability is (with the blessing of God) to be acquired or greatly increased by true learning, and should indeed be the great aim and end of all learning.’ “ (in The Real Benjamin Franklin, NCCS).

This play signals the end of an era as many of our youth will not be back for another performance with us. Josh, who played the ghost, and Dustin, who played the father, are off on missions for their church, while many of our other youth will be moving on to college next year. Back in 2009 these youth put on our first play when they participated in Shakespeare Conquest and have continued to entertain us ever since.

Doesn’t Josh make a great ghost?

“. . .grow scholars:
leaders who love learning and pay the price of greatness;
leaders who embody a moral foundation of truth, virtue, compassion, courage, and voluntary sacrifice;
leaders who positively impact their families and the world for good while fulfilling their personal mission.”

I have decided that to accomplish this mission will be no less than miraculous and take no less than our very best efforts and an abundance of sacrifice. But I firmly believe it will be worth EVERY effort we can make. There is more here at stake than simply the education of our children and families. Leaders who love learning and pay the price of greatness; leaders who embody a moral foundation of truth, virtue, compassion, courage, and voluntary sacrifice are the leaders who are needed to preserve liberty and spread its powerful influence throughout the world to bless God’s children. To bring up the rising generation to be leaders like this will take the BEST we, as parents and mentors, have to offer and iFamily is an instrument in accomplishing this exceptional undertaking.

iFamily is a unique organization — combining elements not quite combined in such a synergistic way before. We are pioneers! Pioneering is glorious to the generations yet to come when they reflect back on what amazing things were accomplished and how much faith and sacrifice it took to accomplish and build what they benefit from. But for those who are pioneering it can be a struggle and difficult to see what those tremendous long-term results will be. It takes enormous amounts of faith to move forward and keep building.

If you want to be a pioneer, you’ve got to be willing to push a handcart and live in a dugout for a time. . . many of the American pioneers had left large, comfortable homes and beautiful farms to spend sometimes many years living in caves walled off at one end with a few logs—in the middle of deserts or snowy plains. Eventually they built something new, something great; but they had to be willing to go through the growth years. (Dr. Neil Flinders, quoted by Oliver DeMille in A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion).

We are living through the growth years. I cannot express how exciting this is to watch and participate in. It is challenging but rewarding. I am so grateful for those who have already sacrificed so much for this incredible organization in establishing it and starting us on this path of greatness. And there is so much more to do. We have incredible mentors willing to take us to the next step by offering events such as a Cultural Literacy Bee for those of scholar age and a Science Fair for our students of all ages. We want to expand these ideas and truly create an environment of challenge and pedantry. We are striving to create a scholar culture so that our older youth will feel challenged and strive for greatness in obtaining their personal education. And we hope those children in Core Phase and Love of Learning who are on this journey with us will become excited for the day they too will be able to be scholars and fall “head over heels” in love with learning as they go.

“No impact can be made alone” (Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion).

What a privilege to be on this pioneering path with each of you where your impact is building “something new, something great.” Where our combined efforts will create

“leaders who love learning and pay the price of greatness;
leaders who embody a moral foundation of truth, virtue, compassion, courage, and voluntary sacrifice;
leaders who positively impact their families and the world for good while fulfilling their personal mission.”

Ripples. Drop a rock into the water and the ripples grow from a tiny circle to larger and more circles. Actions. Act and watch the effects of that action grow from a tiny circle to larger and more circles, rippling out endlessly—much farther than we are capable of seeing.

I am sitting on the floor at Christ Community Church reading about the Civil War and occasionally stopping to ponder on what vision I want to share with my students. What will be of most value to each of them? As I close my eyes and reflect on the Sword of Freedom class I see my students and the amazing individuals they are. What incredible things yet lay ahead of them? What profound personal missions will each of them fill as life goes on? My mind drifts to the other two, more experienced, mentors who have invited me to teach with them this semester. What exceptional women they are!

My mind wanders . . .I hear two youth scholars in the hallway around the corner reciting lines from Shakespeare to each other. I hear the Improv class clapping and cheering for one another. Behind me I can hear the Sons of Liberty class excited to play a game that the youth mentor has devised in preparation for this class period. I see mothers streaming into a classroom across the hall to learn about obtaining deeper and better relationships. I hear the orchestra practicing together and building a team. I see the tiny ones in the classroom next door learning about music and note reading so they will catch the vision of orchestra and look forward to the day they can participate. I remember that earlier today the Pioneer class danced the Virginia Reel with an open invitation to the rest of iFAMILY to join them. Ripples . . .

Another day finds me attending a “How to Mentor” class being offered through iFAMILY. A Saturday morning and the living room of one of our members is literally filled with parents who are striving to be better mentors to their own children as well as those of the iFAMILY community. There are over twenty people here, notebooks in hand, hearts and minds open, drinking in the experience and wisdom of a veteran mentor and afterword sharing with each other their own experiences, questions, and concerns about mentoring in their own lives. There are twenty people here but the effects will undulate to at least another hundred individuals, the children of these diligent parents, and hundreds more who come into contact with these parents and their families. Ripples . . .

My heart is literally filled to overflowing as I consider all that is happening around me. What a colossal blessing it is to be able to participate in an organization such as iFAMILY. We are cultivating an environment of freedom, enthusiasm, education, fellowship! We are building leaders of parents, children, neighbors—each other. “. . .leaders who love learning and pay the price of greatness; leaders who embody a moral foundation of truth, virtue, compassion, courage, and voluntary sacrifice; leaders who positively impact their families and the world for good while fulfilling their personal mission.” Ripples that will continue reverberating far beyond our ability to see.

Drop a pebble in the water:
just a splash, and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples
Circling on and on and on,
Spreading, spreading from the center,
flowing on out to the sea.
And there is no way of telling
where the end is going to be.
(From “Drop a Pebble in the Water” by James W. Foley)

She is continuing this audacious project during Spring Semester 2013 and hopes many more musicians will join the ranks!