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To Whom it may concern:
My name is Shirley Nelson. My Husband and I have struggled
for years to try to get my daughter's life on track. Diagnosed
with ADD and LD, her life was made of recurring failures -
at school, socially, and she was
tantruming, uncooperative, inert, depressed and often ill
at home.
Despite tutoring, counseling, prescription drugs, and acupuncture,
we couldn't get her life to work at all. Living with her was
so hopeless, hard and exhausting, I thought that it just might
kill me. Just before
we sent her to the Whitmore, she was making cuts on her arms
in order to try to feel better. In June of 2004, XXXXX was
16, and we sent her to the Whitmore Academy after a visit
that cemented the feeling that it was a wonderful place where
she could have a fabulous time. We visited her for the first
time in August, after just 2 months, and we couldn't believe
the changes in her. She was happy, healthy, confident, resilient,
diligently helpful, with brilliant communication skills, and
zest for life. Her emotional growth was extraordinary. She
had seemed to be stuck in a 5 year old's mental state, and
suddenly she was behaving like a powerful and constructive
adult.
We brought our whole family for that visit and we had a very
good time. Mark and Cheryl are incredibly skillful at "parenting"
struggling teens. At no time did we get the feeling that anything
was amiss about them or their program. We had alone time with
our daughter where we specifically asked about how everything
was run. It seemed like it was just what teenagers need -
tough love - strict, but not abusive consequences and lots
of love and good attention pouring in.
The adventure and social aspects of the school really draw
the teenagers into a wonderful present time experience. In
fact, my 9 year old daughter was so impressed by their program
that she insists on going to the Whitmore when she comes of
age, even though she seems to be as close as you can get to
a perfect child and is attending a wonderful school. She says
that her 3 favorite places to be are the Builtmore Estate,
skiing in the mountains, and the Whitmore Academy.
XXXXX recently came to visit us for Thanksgiving and seems
in love with being at the Whitmore. She will stay to finish
her schooling there because she loves it so much and it is
soooo good for her. XXXXX and our whole family are not Mormons
and though Mormonism is around XXXXX, it is not forced upon
her. Mark and Cheryl are very powerful and very loving people
who deserve a gold medal for their service to the world. It
is phenomenal work they are doing. Through their work, broken
people are recreated and are able to reclaim their right to
some heaven on earth and to stand strongly beside others as
solid citizens. XXXXX feels very well loved there - she has
said a number of times, "Cheryl loves us all so much."
There is no doubt in my mind with regards to the deep goodness
of these people and their program.
Regards,
Shirley Nelson
Chapel Hill, NC
shirleynelson@nc.rr.com
Copyright © 2004,
Woodbury Reports, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(This article may not be reproduced without written approval of the publisher.)
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