Fulfilling the lifelong learning needs of our diverse communities

When Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge accepted WHYY's 2004 Lifelong Learning Award last month, he remarked that "one of the beauties and benefits of living in a free and open society" is the opportunity we all have to learn every day of our lives if we choose to do so.

At the very core of WHYY's mission is our commitment to assist in making this great region the best place to live, work and raise a family by ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality educational opportunities, from our youngest citizens to those in the second half of life. One of the ways we achieve this, in the words of Secretary Ridge, is to "open up worlds of discovery to the children and adults of this community."

As our fiscal year comes to a close this month, I would like to share with you just a few highlights of the steps we have taken to advance our mission of lifelong learning across our multimedia platforms of television, radio, the Internet and community events this year.

On WHYY-TV, we helped to teach our youngest viewers to learn to love learning by broadcasting more than 3,000 hours of award-winning children's programming. Off-air, our Children's Service staff conducted "Ready To Learn" workshops at various locations throughout the Delaware Valley, training hundreds of parents, teachers and caregivers to use such beloved programs as Sesame Street, Between the Lions and Clifford, The Big Red Dog in conjunction with corollary educational materials so they can help children be better prepared to start school. We also connected with you in the community at our "In the Spirit of the Family" and Y Kids Club events.

Last June, we were pleased to welcome 900 children from the School District of Philadelphia to the dress rehearsal for WHYY's national concert production Denyce Graves: Breaking the Rules at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, where these students participated in a lively Q&A session with Ms. Graves. As part of our off-air outreach around this program, we distributed hundreds of "Teaching Through Music" lesson plans to teachers here and across the United States via an interactive Web site at www.whyy.org, introducing young people in our region and beyond to the diverse landscape of music and the arts.

Through our Adult Learning Service, more than 1,000 employees from 300 organizations in the region strengthened their workplace skills by attending a series of seminars featuring some of today's foremost business leaders. In addition to producing several of these WHYY Advantage sessions live in our Technology Center, we shared many of them with professionals across the country via satellite.

This summer, our Adult Learning Service staff will work to expand our ongoing partnerships with the Workforce Investment Boards in Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties to bring WHYY's GED Digital Datacasting project -- through which WHYY delivers adult basic education materials directly to computer workstations for use by students who need to complete high school equivalency courses and entry-level workers seeking to acquire essential business skills -- to 20 additional sites in the Delaware Valley.

WHYY has long been a leader in distance learning, and more than 45,000 adults have earned college credit through video and online courses through WHYY's Home College Service since its inception nearly a decade ago. In January, WHYY joined its partners in the regional Educational Technology Consortium to launch collegeanywhere.org, a groundbreaking new online service that makes it possible for people to earn a college degree entirely at their own convenience using streaming video content. WHYY was proud to be the only public broadcaster in the U.S. selected by PBS to offer this first-of-its-kind national service.

Year over year, our success in fulfilling the lifelong learning needs of our diverse communities would not be possible without the sustained support of you, our Members. I echo the sentiments of Secretary Ridge, who offered his thanks to all of our Members for the role they play in helping WHYY to serve "the vital interests of learning," and add my personal thanks for your continued generosity as we continue to connect you and your family to a world of ideas and all of us to each other.

Best regards,
William J. Marrazzo
President and Chief Executive Officer