December 21, 2007

Dear Friends:

As the stockings are filled and your last presents wrapped, we wanted to send along our very best wishes for a blessed season for you and your families – and tell you of a new opportunity to honor and support the many Massachusetts families who will be spending the next few days and months apart due to military service.

As many of you know, about 18 months ago Jean and I started SixSeeds (www.SixSeeds.org), a national partnership of families committed to family based service and giving. One particularly special SixSeeds initiative, Guard Support of Massachusetts, has captured our hearts and attention, and we’d like to tell you about it and invite you to consider contributing to it.

Guard Support is an initiative created by two very special friends and SixSeeds partners, Nate and Amy Dalton, to assist families of the Massachusetts National Guard with emergency grants, family support group grants, and other rapidly evolving initiatives. The purpose behind these programs is deeply congruent with the SixSeeds vision: to support family based service. The sacrificial service of National Guard troops is obvious; what is less publicized — but just as real — are the sacrifices made by the families left behind, including financial hardship, loneliness, and strains on parenting resources. Regardless of different political views about the war itself, we can unite around supporting these families facing hardships due to their service of country.

Jean and I feel a particular connection to this cause because our family recently discussed my possible enlistment in the military. In a tribute to a good friend who did end up enlisting (see the "News" section on our homepage www.SixSeeds.org), I described how that process led to our vision for SixSeeds. Guard Support is also special to us because Nate is a good friend and highly accomplished work colleague of John’s, and he and Amy’s dedication to this cause has been truly inspiring to witness. They started informally by providing direct financial support to families, and this quickly grew over the weeks and months that followed. Realizing the extent of the need, Nate and Amy decided to start an organization to provide this assistance on a much larger scale. Over the last decade we have seen Nate bring his exceptional intelligence, energy and focus to building great businesses, and we know he is uniquely qualified to devise an innovative solution to the critical social issue of supporting Guard troops and their families in their deployments abroad and transitions home.

With SixSeeds’ assistance, Guard Support is developing an organization and platform to support its important work. The needs addressed by Guard Support are growing, as multiple deployments and readjustments after long absences exert extra strain on these families. We don’t want to help Guard families simply "make it" through their service, but rather to generously honor and bless them as well. For more information about Nate and Amy’s vision and the Guard Support team, please go to www.GuardSupport.org.

We invite you to consider contributing to Guard Support at this initial and important stage. We’re well aware we are each called to different projects and causes, so please weigh this request feeling no pressure from us. As you evaluate possible assistance for this project, we want you to know that generous partners of SixSeeds have committed to match contributions through the end of the first quarter of 2008 up to a total of $150,000.

Contributions may be made on line at www.GuardSupport.org or via check by mailing to:

Guard Support
PO Box 259
Marblehead, MA 01945

To ensure your contribution is recognized for the match, please let us know of your support by emailing us at JohnandJean@SixSeeds.org. (Please note - for important information on Guard Support’s interim tax exemption status, please see www.GuardSupport.org/how_you_can_help)

We thank you for your time and consideration, and once again send along our warmest holiday regards.

Very truly yours,

John and Jean Kingston

(A last note from John – with the holiday upon us, I thought you might enjoy this very seasonal piece from Jean, written for our SixSeeds site.)