Sample letters

[Sir Trevor]

Anyone here have the time and the energy to write some simple sample letters that others could use as a template.

I thought of this last night as I lay down for bed, but don't have the time at the moment (leaving at 3AM for Brit's OSU orientation and won't be back until Friday night)

Something targeted and slightly specific would probably be best.
Example - one to Ashtabula Count commissioners from someone not in the county. Talk up how the faire is the reason they come here and spend money in the county. Bring friends, recomend friends etc. And how if the faire goes away, so will their money.

Example - one to Ashtabula Count commissioners from someone who does live in the county. Talk up how they don't like their tax money being used for this vendetta. Especially since the budget is already so tight that it is really wasting the limited manpower hours the sheriff's department has. And stress that they are a resident, taxpayer, and voter.

Example - one for some of the state representative from someone out of state. Again talking about how the faire brings them to Ohio, and their district specifically. How their out of state money contributes to our economy, etc.


I am sure we have some wordsmiths here that could put something together that people could copy, maybe tweek a little to personalize it, then send it off themselves.

[tomnaboley]

SAMPLE LETTER #1

August 4, 2009

Ashtabula County Commissioners
Ashtabula County
25 West Jefferson Strreet
County Courthouse
Jefferson, OH 44047-1027

Re: Great Lakes Medieval Faire

Dear Commissioners,
I am a resident of Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, Ohio.
I am also a season pass holder for the Great Lakes medieval Faire. I have been for 5 years.
Myself, and my family look forward to the Faire every season. We bring friends and other family members with us. We tell friends, co-workers and neighbors to attend the Faire every season. The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is our yearly holiday.
If it were not for the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, we would most likely never visit Trumbull Township, or the surrounding towns. If the Great Lakes Medieval Faire were to be shut down and leave Ashtabula county, we would follow the Faire. We would spend our money someplace else. As it is, we do spend quite a bit of our hard earned money in your county. We purchase our petrol at the Kwik-Fil by I-90. We have stopped and picked up fruit and vegetables at the new fruit stand on 534. We have even spent the night at hotels in Geneva. We have told friends about the town square in Hartsgrove. They have stopped before and after Faire to purchase petrol or quick snacks.
As you can see, you need to help keep the Great Lakes Medieval Faire in your county, in Trumbull Township. The Great Lakes Medieval Faire is only asset to Ashtabula County and especially to Trumbull Township.

Thank You,
Kathleen L. O’Brien
17825 Marcella Rd.
Cleveland, Ohio 44119
[phone]

[tomnaboley]

Sample Letter/Speech from my son Robinson (the Highwayman)

To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you in an attempt to save the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, currently under threat of closure by the Trumbull Township Board of Trustees. I moved to Ohio from California in 2005, residing in Cleveland during my summers and Ashland during the school year. The first summer I lived in Ohio, I attended the Great Lakes Medieval Faire and was so pleased with it that I have obtained season passes every year after that and drive out to Ashtabula County every weekend it runs, choosing to stay around Ohio for the six weeks it runs rather than return back to California for my break.
As this year is the bicentennial of the birth of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, and as I have the privilege of studying under one of the foremost Lincoln scholars in the nation, Peter Schramm, please permit me to tell a tale of Lincoln in order to make a point about this medieval faire.
As everyone knows, Abraham Lincoln was a very tall man, and very thin. He was also a rather ugly fellow, and his voice was not the most pleasant to listen to. The majority of his height was in his legs, so when this giant sat down in a chair, his knees would be very high up and he would look absolutely ridiculous. A country man, he held no formal education, instead learning through reading his Bible and the collected works of William Shakespeare. One thing Lincoln loved to do was laugh, and get others to laugh with him, and to that extent he was always telling jokes and stories. Given his rural upbringing, many of these jokes were considered crude and inappropriate by his more-educated peers in Washington. Many of these peers made up his presidential cabinet, and many of them were even political enemies of his—banded together in unity to figure out how to deal with a chaotic, painful world surrounding them.
Lincoln and his cabinet would meet almost daily to discuss the Civil War, and they would receive casualty reports from all of the recent battles—a few hundred dead here, a few thousands dead there. After the reports would be made, Lincoln would start joking and laughing, slapping his knee and seeming to many of the others around the table to be an inconsiderate and obnoxious giant. Finally, after some time of this, Kenyon College-educated and Lincoln critic Edward Stanton, then-Secretary of War, stood up from the table there were sitting at whilst the president laughed and slammed his fist onto the table. “Good God, man,” he cried, “thousands of boys are dying by the day! How can you laugh at a time like this?”
The room got silent, and Lincoln gave the politicians around him a perplexed and shocked look. “I thought you knew,” he murmured, bowing his head. “I thought you knew…”
An awkward silence fell over the room for a few moments, the cabinet glancing uneasily at Lincoln. Finally, the president lifted his head against, his eyes reddened as he held back tears. “If I could not laugh, my heart would break more and more with each day that passed, and I feel as if I would die from such pain,” he replied hoarsely. “Laughter is the best medicine for the illness of heartache, and I only thought that by sharing it with you, I was saving you.” The room sat silent, stunned, and then all wept for a few minutes with the president. From thereon out, these men would tolerate the president’s joking, sometimes even joining in to share a laugh now and then, for they realized that in a world full of hardship, pain, and discomfort, laughter and beauty are what are best to help us trudge on.
The people of this medieval faire indeed look ridiculous in the clothes they wear and the habits they have. They may not exactly fit into what surrounds them. Their jokes and words may at times be crude and inappropriate, and their conversations simple and seemingly ignorant of the world. But they are good people, gathering together from all parts of the state and the country to share some common joys in a world full of discomfort and insecurity. Laughter can go a long way in helping improve life when it looks impossible to do so.
As a personal example, last week was a terribly difficult week for me. In addition to growing financial woes with my university, one acquaintance of mine from high school was arrested on suspicion of murder and another was killed in a car accident. To add more to my troubling thoughts, as I pulled into the faire parking lot on a Saturday morning my grandfather called to inform me that he had just read in the newspaper that an old friend of mine had been killed. The faire provided me, as it does so many others, the type of distraction that I needed to keep my wits and process all of this. During the day, I did a little act for a family visiting the faire; their young daughter was dressed in a very nice little princess costume. The laughter and smile on her face was enough to bring such joy to me that for some time I forgot about all these troubling things—a common affect that the happiness of children seems to have on those adults watching them, and something that occurs so very often at this faire.
To that end, I beseech you to do what you can to save this faire. This is not some personal plea on my behalf. This August will be the final time I ever step foot onto the grounds of the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, for I am in Ohio only for my education and once I receive my degree this coming May, I will be gone from the state. But, as a human being who understands that people need the type of distractions provided by entertainment and amusement parks, as someone who has had the privilege of witnessing first hand the joy that this faire in particular brings to people, I am compelled to implore that you save it from closing.
Others will all raise the valid and obvious points of how good it is for local communities that people travel to the faire, and how the current state of the economy is turning people towards more local things like this faire rather than expensive vacations elsewhere in the country. In addition to these common sense arguments in favor of the Great Lakes Medieval Faire, I humbly add this appeal to your humanity and one of the purposes of government being to promote and protect the pursuit of happiness. Please, save the Great Lakes Medieval Faire.
Thank you,
Robinson O’Brien-Bours

[Hephzibah]

Very nice indeed Robinson thankyou..... I'm not good with words hugs

[Olive]

Lookie what I found: tiny.cc/6oO0M Great letter by a faire employee who was cited.

[Allyn]

Olive...Thanks for putting up that link....
Eveyone should read this!!!
Allyn

[Olive]

" I am a multi-degreed professional who serves in non-profit educational and charitable organizations and I am active in my community through various organizations. I operate a farm in northeastern Ohio and do living history education, charitable service work, and development projects in impoverished nations.
Several years ago I was invited to participate in the Great Lakes Medieval Faire. I have found that the people who produce, entertain, act, cook, serve, park cars, landscape, demonstrate skills, sell artisanal work, and who visit the faire, create together a unique and pleasant community atmosphere for twelve days each year. The faire is congenial, convivial, educational, funny, poignant, whimsical, interactive--or not-- to whatever extent you like. It has given me opportunites and associations that have benefited me and my community and that are valuable to me. I am grateful to the producers of this faire for the opportunities they have provided.

I know of no other commercial enterprise that has garnered the appreciation, the volunteer participation, the cooperation, and the loyalty of employees, artisans, entertainers, and the paying public like this fair does. I believe it attests to the character and values of the faire's owner and producer, Larry Rickard, and of the staff he selects. Furthermore, the fair experiences, to my knowledge, a remarkable absence of crime and disturbances compared to other events and attractions like county fairs, sports events, or the Cleveland Zoo. This fair is a gem hidden in the woods.
So I have to wonder why Mr. Rickard and his faire have been so opposed by local elected officials who have brought several suits against him over many years, yet have not won a single case in court. I am suspicious about what motivates these officials' current campaign to cite faire participants for failure to comply with a legally dubious and draconian township license requirement. I am curious to discover what the reaction of Ashtabula county residents will be to learn the taxpayers' cost of these repeated failing legal attempts to destroys Mr. Rickard's livelihood and a local business that brings people and their dollars into northeastern Ohio.

[tomnaboley]

I e-mailed Robinson's letter to the newspapers,the governor, senators, and the commissioners. (I just liked it and thought they should see it.I may be a tiny bit partial to it)

[Jezzy MacPeaks]

These letters are all great! Thanks for the link to the open letter. That one should drive some good points home, if there's anyone there who understands basic english. I'm already fairly certain they don't have a heart, so I wouldn't expect a compassionate plea to get us anywhere with them. So, HUZZAH to Mr./Ms. Pilgrim for pointing out what imbisciles they are!

[Sir Trevor]

Here is a copy of the letter/ email I sent to the county commissioners.


To all 3 Commissioners
I would like to ask about what appears to be a huge waste of our tax money.
I attended the Great Lakes Medieval Faire this past weekend.
While there, I noticed that there were several sheriff's deputies walking around the ground handing out summons to almost every vendor there.
After inquiring as to what was going on, and doing some poking around, it seems as if this is a huge waste of time.
Apparently they are issuing summons that read "violation of 5055.94" and states "failure to obtain vendor's license"
This is preprinted on the summons along with the address for the faire

First of all, 5055.94 does not exist.
505.94 does exist though.
codes.ohio.gov/orc/505.94
Part of which states
"This division does not authorize a board of township trustees to apply a resolution it adopts under this division to any person invited by an owner or tenant to visit the owner’s or tenant’s premises to sell, offer for sale, or solicit orders for future delivery of goods."

It seems to me that all the vendors at GLMF would fall under this exemption.
It further seems this is all because of Trumbull Township's new transient vendor resolution passed on 6/25/09.
www.trumbulltownship.org/TRANSIENT_VENDOR_RESOLUTION_2009.pdf

Which seems to be a reaction to the township loosing a long drawn out appeals process with litigation against GLMF
www.tddlaw.com/documents/RickardvTrumbullTwpBdofZoningAppeals2009-Ohio-2619.pdf

Now, I understand that under 'home rule' the township can pretty much govern themselves.
But I do believe that since they are wasting county resources that you 3 commissioners should have something to say on the matter.
I mean, I keep reading in the paper how tight the budget is.
How all the departments have to keep cutting hours.
Especially the sheriff having to cut officer's time.
And now, here they are spending hours on something frivolous like this instead of being out on the streets protecting us. I don't even want to think how much of the court's time this will waste, as well as the county prosecutor.

I won't even go into the lost tax revenue this will create if the trustees are successful in driving away the vendors from GLMF (which seems to be their intent)
I thought we were welcoming tourism here in Ashtabula County, not trying to drive it away.

--

-----------
Trevor Ylisaari, Conneaut Ohio
Registered voter and taxpayer

[countessofmidnight]

Wonderful sample letters ! I will be mailing mine ! WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS ! I JUST KNOW IT !!!

My Love to All of You !!!

[mumsies]

Here is a copy of the reply I received from Deborah Newcomb, the state representative. I guess the main plan of action is still to get the township to change their minds. (and, obviously yes, the battle has been going on for some time!).



August 11, 2009





Dear Ms. Cousins:



Thank you for your email regarding the annual Great Lakes Medieval Faire held in Trumbull Township. Before serving at the State Representative for the 99th Ohio House District, I previously served as an Ashtabula County Commissioner. As a commissioner, I was made aware of the legal battles between the Trumbull Township Trustees and the owners of the company entrusted with Medieval Fair each year.



It is in my understanding that despite the several lawsuits regarding zoning requirements, the faire has yet to be cancelled. In order to continue the preservation of this annual occurrence, I encourage you to contact the Trumbull Township Trustees, urging them to reconsider removing the Great Lakes Medieval Faire from Trumbull Township.



Please contact me if I may provide any future assistance.



Sincerely,



DEBORAH NEWCOMB

State Representative

99th House District