As the year ends, we write to thank you for all that we have accomplished with your help and to ask for your continued support.

Is there a highlight that illuminates our year? Well, we have learned to grow electric flowers.

Their florets are Light Emitting Diodes, tiny solid state illuminators that are revolutionizing energy use. Our flowers stretch a battery’s power over months, a bit of husbandry that teaches the sense of sustainability.

The diodes are pliant and durable. They are both exotic in their science and immediate in their applications. Young hands can assemble them with the ease with which you once made clover chains. Young hands feel, quite literally, powerful.

No child will mistake our artificial flowers for the fragile glory of the humblest of nature’s flowers. Children know that our flowers are seedlings to be cultivated by their creativity. Some see rich color. Some cut intricate forms. Some carefully reproduce a favorite species. Some improvise wildly. Children can construct, from common parts, something uncommon.

Imagination is fragile. In too many schools, standardized tests, administered to weed out distractions that undercut the growth of basic skills, choke the confidence that flowers crave.

When you support our Annual Appeal, you provide space and tools for growing. You underwrite diversity. You feed exotic imaginations. You provide the faith that rescues late-blooming flowers and minds.