Teen Challenge deserves your help

To the editor:

As a GED instructor, I had the pleasure of teaching at Teen Challenge during the 2003-04 school year. The GED program graduated an average of three to four students a month. Two students graduated with scholarship scores and enrolled in universities when they left Teen Challenge. Others who passed enrolled in technical programs, community colleges and universities as well.

The classroom environment at Teen Challenge is ideal, because regular attendance and good work habits are encouraged. The classroom size allows for 15 students, with a waiting list of three or four students. Students rotate in each month as other students graduate. Not all are able to complete their GED due to the length of their wait because of a lack of space.

Once students graduate from Teen Challenge, few return. The recidivism rate is less than 40 percent, which is testimony to the success of the program. In many instances, graduates give back to their communities in appreciation for society's helping them.

I hope the community responds to Teen Challenge's attempt to raise money in order to enable it to continue helping all those who choose the program.

MARY ANN HAYNES, Cape Girardeau