Dear Redwood Families,

As we approach Christmas, I want to extend to you an Invitation to Participate. At Redwood, our journey toward excellence begins in Christ. His wisdom, truth, and love set the standard for all we do. True excellence is not about perfection, but about faithfulness, intentionality, and obedience to the One who calls us to raise the next generation for His glory.

It is in this spirit that we celebrate an important milestone: Redwood Classical Academy has officially been accepted as a candidate school for accreditation. This begins a year-long journey of reflection, growth, and refinement. Accreditation is not the finish line; it is a meaningful starting point—a way for us to steward well what God has entrusted to our care.

Recently, we created a short video (see app) capturing the voices of Redwood parents sharing what this community has meant to their families. As you watch, I hope you are encouraged by how God is at work—not just in classrooms, but in homes, relationships, and hearts. Their words beautifully reflect why this journey matters and why participation from each of you is so vital.

We invite you to participate in this season in meaningful ways. Your involvement helps shape a vibrant, Christ-centered homeschool community and models for our students what it looks like to serve, grow, and engage faithfully.

Here are some ways you can participate:

• Volunteer on community days or behind the scenes
• Attend Stay & Pray or Stay & Play on the first Tuesday or Thursday of each month
• Get to know someone new through Coffee for Four (beginning the week of January 27)
• Join the Accreditation, Exam, or Finance Teams
• Participate in the love of learning by attending Enrichment Day events (see the app for details)
• Study Charlotte Mason together (more details coming soon!)
• Join us for our annual Parent's Tea on Tuesday, March 24th from 9-11 am.

As you engage with our end-of-year campaign and community life, consider how your prayers, presence, and participation help form students who will live fully for Christ. When we work together at home, at school, and in our broader community we cultivate habits, character, and curiosity that honor Him.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. Together, let us participate fully, trusting that as we do, Christ is glorified and our children are equipped to flourish under His design.

With gratitude and hope,
Elizabeth Werkheiser
Executive Director
Redwood Classical Academy

Dear Friends and Families of RCA,

As your Board Treasurer, I have the privilege of seeing up close how God uses your generosity to strengthen the mission of Redwood Classical Academy. Every gift, small or large, becomes part of something far bigger than a line on a spreadsheet. It becomes fuel for the work God is doing in the hearts of children and in the homes we serve.
This season, we invite you to prayerfully consider giving to our Mission Fund. Your partnership allows us to invest directly in the people and programs that shape students and the homes that we serve with wisdom, humility, and hope. It enables us to sustain what God has built and steward it faithfully for the future.

If Redwood has encouraged your family, if you have seen growth in your children, or if you simply believe in the mission of strengthening homes for the next generation would you join us in giving with joyful intentionality?
Thank you for walking with us. Your generosity makes a real, lasting impact.

With gratitude and hope,
Stacey Cline
Board Treasurer
Redwood Classical Academy

Dear Families of Redwood,

This has been a defining year and you have been part of God’s unmistakable work here. I often say that my role as Executive Director is simple: listen closely to God’s story for Redwood, share it, and then get out of the way. I want a front-row seat to what He is building through this community. And truly we are watching Him write something remarkable.

Just look at what He has already done through your prayers, your support, and your generosity:
• A 72% increase in full-time students
• A fully developed Seeds (Kindergarten) curriculum written uniquely for Redwood
• Three public Enrichment Days serving 53 families
• Two new full-time Mentors and expanded operational support

We don’t invite giving because we are in crisis. We invite it because the mission is moving and God is opening doors we want to walk through faithfully.

As we look towards our plan, our next milestone is to raise $50,000 by December 31, 2025. We are already halfway there, having received $25,000 by God’s provision and your generosity. Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us to help us finish the year strong?

Your giving directly impacts our mission to provide a Christ-centered, relational education for every student and support to every home-educator. With your help, we can continue to:
 

• Equip Mentors with CORE training through the Charlotte Mason Institute, Nature Journaling and Master Gardening courses deepening their craft and strengthening classroom instruction.
• Expand the outdoor spaces to create imaginative play spaces for deeper connection with God’s creation.
• Complete the Accreditation journey to ensure families that Redwood is rooted in a proven, time-tested philosophy of education and is meeting the highest standards of excellence and faithfulness for their children.
• Build living libraries in each classroom so every student can hold the books that shape their minds and hearts.
• Expands the ways families can partner with Redwood. Whether through added learning opportunities, supportive resources, or new programming so that more parents and students can flourish within their goals of home education.  

As we move toward year-end, would you pray and ask the Lord how He might have you join this next chapter?  A gift of $100, $500, $1,000, or more helps us build our people so they can shepherd our students and families with excellence. May God continue to write His story for Redwood, and may we have the humility and courage to follow Him step by step.

With gratitude and great hope,
Elizabeth Werkheiser
Founder, Executive Director, Redwood Classical Academy

Dear Redwood Families,
As we continue our year-end campaign, I want to invite you into one of the most important and foundational practices of our community: prayer.

As Board Secretary, I spend much of my time ensuring that the written documents, policies, and records that protect Redwood Classical Academy are clear, accurate, and in place. These visible documents matter they safeguard our school, give structure to our work, and help us remain faithful to what God has called us to.

But there is another kind of recordkeeping that is just as vital, though completely unseen: the prayers we offer as we seek to protect our own homes, our children, and the hope that God is forming in the next generation.
With every move we make as a community, we long to cover it in prayer. These prayers become the unseen documents that shape our culture, steady our steps, and anchor us in dependence on the Lord.

Before we speak about giving, we speak about dependence. RCA is a work of the Lord, and we desire every decision, every step, and every new initiative to be rooted in prayer.

During this time, we invite you to join us in praying over our students, Mentors, volunteers, and families. Pray that Christ will be at the center of our homes, that wisdom will take deep root in young hearts, and that our community would shine with the hope of the gospel.
Would you take a moment today and throughout this week to pray for Redwood? Your prayers strengthen this mission more than you know.
Join us as we pray for God’s vision and God’s provision.

Praying always,
Katie Dykstra
Redwood Classical Academy Board of Directors

Dear Redwood Families,
As we enter this season together, the Board would like to extend a warm invitation to join us in our annual year-end campaign. Before we look forward to the future God is faithfully shaping, we want to pause and look back with intentional gratitude.
This has been a year marked by the Lord’s steady and unmistakable provision. Again and again, we have seen His kindness woven through every detail of RCA:

• He has brought us the right staff at the right time to devote Christ's love to our students.  
  
  
• He has provided practical blessings, from classroom resources to our growing garden space where students learn and worship the God who made all things.
  
  
• He has faithfully met our financial needs year after year, often in ways we could not have anticipated but always in ways that deepened our trust.
  
  
• He has blessed us with a wonderful property at St. Mark's, a place that has become a safe home for friendships to flourish.  

These reminders strengthen our confidence that He who began this work will continue to sustain it.
As a Board, we are praying that this year-end campaign would not simply be an exercise in giving, but a moment of shared intentionality.  This is an intentional time for us, together as parents and partners, to participate in the mission of shaping Christian homes for Christ. Our desire is not only to raise funds, but to invite every family to join us in gratitude, prayer, and purposeful investment in what God is doing here at Redwood.
As we look ahead, we gently ask each family to pay close attention to every message shared from now through the end of the year. Each story, update, and invitation reflects the heart of our mission and the work God is doing among us.
We are deeply thankful for each of you and for the way God continues to build RCA through your faithfulness. As we step into this campaign, may we do so with gratitude for what He has done and hopeful expectation for what He will yet do.
With gratitude and great hope,
Mary Fitzgerald
Redwood Classical Academy Board of Directors