December, 2006
Dear friends of the Foundation,
We are writing to update you on the activities of the Foundation and to thank many of you for your continued support of the Foundation throughout the year.
The goals of the Foundation are to: A) promote literacy, B) research new treatments for orphan diseases of childhood and C) research methods to engender in children love of learning, empathy and compassion.
We have recently completed an initial analysis in an ongoing study survey to identify factors that predict the amount of time and satisfaction that parents experience in reading to their children. The ultimate aim is to identify interventions that will enhance the amount of time that parents read to their children. The initial subject population was parents of pre-school and elementary-school age children. The costs of this initial proof of concept study were borne entirely by the founders. The interim analysis was performed while additional data is collected. The preliminary results have been submitted for presentation at a scientific session of the 16 th Annual Conference on Family Literacy in March, 2007. The Foundation has also submitted a proposal to publicize the availability of the Foundations' funds for literacy research at the meeting.
Along with a key board member, we have met with principals of prominent literacy advocacy groups and after discussions of their capabilities and interests solicited specific proposals for: 1) longer term studies of the durability of positive results obtained in state funded interventions to improve literacy in disadvantaged children and other special populations; and 2) web based interventions to improve literacy in geographically remote areas.
We are also evaluating a grant proposal from a local non-profit that provides tutoring and mentoring services to disadvantaged children in Ward 8 of Washington, D.C., and will update you in greater detail on that grant as we proceed.
We are currently in discussion with the leader of a team of leading scientists who are exploring the relationship between severe early childhood stress and alterations in long term patterns of myelination and white matter development in the brain. We are attempting to channel these discussions toward a specific proposal for assessment of the relationship, if any, among early childhood trauma, reading and other verbal skills, and patterns of brain white matter development. We hope to have a grant proposal in hand for peer review by the end of December.
We had a series of discussions with prominent research scientists with respect to nutritional interventions that might favorably alter the long term risk of cardiovascular events in children who have been afflicted with Kawasaki 's Disease. Such nutritional programs were hypothesized to be potentially cost-effective, low risk, widely available potential disease altering interventions. Those discussions revealed potential financial issues in the research design with respect to statistical power (number of subjects required to reliably determine if there is an effect of the intervention) and the length of time patients would need to be studied. The costs appear to be beyond the current scope of the Foundation. We are currently considering methodology such as enriched samples that might reduce the costs as well as alliances with other fund raising bodies.
From a fiduciary perspective, we are also pleased to report that the percentage of donated funds used for administrative, legal and salary costs of the Foundation thus far is less than 2% (which is vastly lower than the national average).
Again, we are very grateful for your support and will keep you updated on our progress. Should you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you again.
David and Lisa Daniel