California is celebrating a very important anniversary! It will soon be 150 years since the Gold Rush of 1849 and California becoming a state in 1850. A 150 year anniversary is called a Sesquicentennial. This is pronounced ses-kwi-sen-ten'-ee-ul. .

California is celebrating its Sesquicentennial over the next two years with a series of events throughout the state. The theme for the Sesquicentennial is "Rediscover California's Gold: Its Spirit, Its People and Its Promise."

The State Literacy Resource Center of California would like to invite adult learners throughout our state to help celebrate California's Sesquicentennial by writing a story about how and why they (or their parents or grandparents or great grandparents. etc.) came to California. These short stories will be published on the web on a homepage solely dedicated to this. If sufficient funding can be found, these will also be published in book form and a copy will be mailed to every person whose story is in the book.

The story may be of any length up to three double spaced and typed pages. We encourage you to submit pictures or drawings by you or your children to accompany your story. You will probably want to have your tutor or teacher review your story with you to evaluate spelling, punctuation, and grammar before submitting it. This is also a good way to practice your computer skills.

Be sure to include a title for your story. One title from the stories submitted will be used as the title for the book. One of the drawings submitted will be used for the cover.

We would like you to submit your story on-line by emailing it to Paul Heavenridge at pheaven@literacynet.org. However, if you cannot do this, you may send a disk or written copy to:

Paul Heavenridge, Director

Western/Pacific Literacy Network

1086 Eighth Street

Oakland, California 94607

Any photos or drawings you would like to include should be mailed to this same address. Just be sure you put your name and address on the back of these if you would like them returned.

We look forward to receiving many different stories from many adult learners in our state. We all are in California today because of our own reasons or those of our ancestors. Let's celebrate this important anniversary and preserve these stories for future generations!