Mayor Steve Allender of Rapid City, South Dakota

5/16/2018

Mayor Steve Allender

c/o Office of the Mayor

City of Rapid City

300 6^th Street

Rapid City, SD  57701

Dear Mayor Allender,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history and social justice. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for Civil Rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and many others. Mayor Allender, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota, I’m very proud on how you are a strong supporter of Civil Rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, supporting funds to help women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, and advocating for the need to strengthen Civil Rights to help protect minorities including people who are different from being discriminated. On the economy,  l liked on how you expand on job-training programs to help train youth including workers to develop work-skills to help them prepare for the economy and provide tax credit to small businesses to help them hire people like minorities, women, and people with disabilities to work for them. Funding special education to help students with disabilities get the educational accommodations they need to learn, expanding on after school programs to provide youth with help on their assignments from tutors, and push for funds for  arts including diversity programs to help make education diverse to learn is common sense for education reform. I like your approach on protecting the environment like funding renewable energy resources to reduce addiction to oil with gas, working to improve city services to help clean parks including water resources to make them safe for people to use, and pushing for more environmental educational awareness programs to help teach people about the need to protect the environment.  Another thing that I like about your work as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota is how you push for funds to help restore historical sites, museums including attractions to improve tourism while make learning a better place, implement job shadowing program in city services to help train new hires to explore different department in city services to understand how it works, and working to push for more affordable housing to help people who can’t afford to live get shelter.     

Mayor Allender, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Also your role as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota gives me motivation to continue to learn history and social justice.  My future goal is to someday work in these areas  to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and improve social justice to make communities safe.

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference in your current role as Mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota.  I’m proud how you are working hard to improve Civil Rights, protect the environment, and fix city services to make them be helpful to citizens.  You have inspire me to work hard on my disability and to continue to learn different subjects like history and social justice.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. I wish you the best to continue to make a great difference.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Gifts from Mayor Allender. 

Mr. Dylan Baker Actor

8/27/2018

Mr. Dylan Baker

Bernhardt/Hamlet (Aug 31 2018- Nov 11 2018)

c/o American Airlines Theatre

227 W. 42^nd Street

New York, NY  10036

Dear Mr. Baker,

My name is Matt Winick and I’m a fan of your acting. My favorite movies that you played in were Spiderman 2, Thirteen Days, and Secretariat.  In Spiderman 2, I liked the story about Peter Parker trying to learn how to balance his life with his crime fighting as Spiderman. Mr. Baker, I thought you did an excellent job portraying as Dr. Curt Connors because I liked on how you made him have different unique traits like caring about Peter Parker’s wellbeing when he has struggles in his personal life or his academic work and helping Peter understand different resources or research to help Peter use what he learns to help make Spiderman a hero for the city.  Thirteen Days was a great historical movie about The Cuban Missile Crisis and how the JFK administration worked on handling the crisis.   In the movie I liked learning about how the military, President JFK, some of the advisors of the JFK administration would have different views on if they should continue this mission or not. I thought you did great on making Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a historical figure because I liked learning about his life when he served in public service including the JFK administration.  Secretariat is a great biopic movie about how Penny Chenery got into the horse racing businesses and running the businesses to help the horse (Secretariat) do well in the races.   Also in Secretariat I enjoyed learning about hoe how the other Chenery siblings and certain of Penny’s friends help Penny understand the businesses while giving her some advice.  I really liked on how you made Hollis Chenery an influential historical figure because I liked on how you made Hollis have good traits like helping his sibling Penny understand life when she struggles in the horse racing businesses and understanding life when there are difficulties.

Mr. Baker, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts,  and get teased.  Your acting in movies help inspire me to work hard on my disability.  Also your roles in historical movies like  Thirteen Days and Secretariat helped me get motivated to learn more American history. In American history I like learning about how famous Americans or different individuals (minorities, women, immigrants, and people with disabilities) on how they work hard to make a great difference for society, the importance of making Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, how diversity including arts or entertainment makes society diverse for people, and many others.  The main reason why I like learning history is because it helps me learn more how society works, expands my interest in learning about the need to make social justice a better place, and many others. 

I strongly believe that you are a very talented actor. You do such an excellent job making your characters have unique traits. Also to add I think that you do a great job making historical movies great to watch and learn on how the historical plays an important factor in society. You truly inspire me to work hard on my disability and to be motivated to continue to learn history.  Here is $5 for you to use to help fund the arts to make society a better place.   Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make movies great including your characters, and inspiring me.  I wish you the best for the future in acting.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

President Eduardo Padron of Miami Dade College

8/24/2018

President Eduardo J. Padron

c/o Office of the President

Miami Dade College

300 Northeast 2^nd Avenue

Miami, FL  33132-2297

Dear President Padron,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history and social justice.  In these subjects, I like to learn the need for Civil Rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, have diversity to make society a better place for people with different background, and many others.  President Padron, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as President of Miami Dade College to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as President of Miami Dade College, I truly appreciate on how you are a strong advocate for the need to make Civil Rights stronger by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, hiring women, minorities, and people with disabilities to work at the colleges, and working hard to reduce in Miami Dade College. On education, I liked on how you expanded more diversity programs to help teach people about different cultures, worked to provide accommodations to students with disabilities to help them learn like extra time on exams along with have educational resources to help assist them on comprehension, and funding more Liberal arts classes like art including history to make education diverse.  Another thing that I like about your work as President of Miami Dade College is during the hurricane in Puerto Rico, I liked on how you expanded funds to help families of Puerto Rican students get the care they need,  work with student government to find ways to improve the college, and advocate for the need for immigration reform to help immigrants including refugees be protected from being oppressed and to allow them to get an education to help our country.   In November I was very proud on how you were the recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama for your commitment to improve diversity in the education.

President Padron, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter and advocate for Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Also your role as President of Miami Dade College and your work on pushing for diversity motivates me to continue to learn history with social justice. My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination,  have diversity to make society a better place,  have immigration reform to help protect immigrants including refugees from oppression while give them an opportunity to get an education.

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference in your current role. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to improve education, make diversity a better place, and many others.  You have inspire me to work hard on my disability, be interested in learning about your work as current president of Miami Dade College, and continue my motivation to learn history with social justice.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make society a better place, and inspiring me.  I wish you the best to continue your role as President of Miami Dade College to make a great impact on society and diversity.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick

Mayor Kim McMillan of Clarksville, Tennessee

8/01/2018

Mayor Kim McMillan

c/o Office of the Mayor

City Hall

1 Public Square

Clarksville, TN  37040

Dear Mayor McMillan,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan with a strong interest in learning history with social justice. In these subjects, I like to learn the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, and many others. Mayor McMillan, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as Mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee to be very inspiring to me.

In January 2011, I was amazed on how you made history by becoming the first woman to become Mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee.  In your current role as Mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee I truly appreciate on how you are a strong supporter of Civil Rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights, working with city council to expand laws to combat against hate-crime to help protect minorities including people who are different, and supporting funds for women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy.  On the economy,  I like your approach on expanding on job-training program to help train youth including workers to develop work-skills to help prepare for the workforce, expressing the need to raise the minimum wage to help minimum wage workers afford to live,  and working to provide tax credits to small businesses including local businesses to help them hire people.  Supporting renewable energy projects to help reduce addiction to oil with gas, encouraging businesses including industries to use energy-efficient products to reduce pollution while reduce high energy cost, and working with city council to improve city services to help clean parks including water resources to make them safe for people to use is common sense to protect the environment.   Funding special education to help students with disabilities’ get the educational accommodations they need, to learn, expanding on after school programs to provide youth with assistance on their assignments from tutors, and pushing for more arts, diversity, and history to help make education diverse is a great way to make education a better place.  On social justice, I like on how you are a strong supporter for the need to expand programs to help victims of crime or victims of domestic violence get help on dealing with their trauma, advocate for the need for immigration reform to help protect immigration including refugees from being oppressed, and express the importance of the criminal justice system to reduce racial profiling to help protect minorities including immigrants from being oppressed.  Another thing that I like about your work as Mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee is how you advocate for affordable housing to help people who are low-income or who can’t afford to live, provide funds to help restore historical sites with museums including attractions to make learning history with culture a better place while improve tourism, and work with other U.S. Mayors from different political affiliation in the U.S. Conference of Mayors to find different common sense solutions to improve society.

Mayor McMillan, I have autism with a learning disability. Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. Your commitment to be a strong supporter of Civil Rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability.  Also you role as current mayor of Clarksville, Tennessee gives me motivation to continue to learn history with social justice.  My future goal is to someday work in these areas to help emphasize the need to make Civil Rights stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, improve social justice to make communities safe, and many others.

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference in your current role. I’m very proud on how you are working hard to support Civil Rights, push for environmental protection, improve social justice, and work with different U.S. Mayors to find common sense solutions.  You have inspired me to work hard on my disability and be motivated to learn history with social justice.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me.  I wish you the best to continue to make a great impact on society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick