Members of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors: We, the undersigned, hereby express our disagreement with the proposed elimination of the Spotsylvania County Public School Winter Track Program, as designated in the Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2010. We strongly urge you reconsider your decision to eliminate the whole of this one sport, for the following reasons: I. Track promotes physical fitness for our student-athletes, and provides them with a positive environment during the winter season. Given the other sports offered in the winter season and their limitations, and the absence of any sort of club system in the county, there is no other viable alternative for these athletes from November through February. II. Track teaches positive life lessons including dedication and commitment, teamwork, and sportsmanship. Track provides a structure for many athletes who don’t have anywhere else to go. With this structure, many athletes also use it to frame their schedules and focus on their academics with their time limitations. It also serves as a positive social alternatives to many of the destructive behaviors which take place with regularity on the weekends, when track athletes might otherwise be at meets or preparing for them. We, the undersigned, are opposed to the complete elimination of any sport in Spotsylvania County. We recognize that the economic situation today may be in dire straits, and that some cuts may need to be made. We would point out that many neighboring counties have dealt with this situation without any elimination to their sports programs, and would suggest that if cuts are made, they are made in small increments to all sports, and not single out particular sports. As athletes, parents, coaches, officials, alumni, and concerned Spotsylvania County citizens, we stand steadfast in our position that it is fundamentally wrong to eliminate Winter Track, and as such, we pledge our relentless resolve to see this crisis through until this erroneous suggestion is changed.