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C,'r) ---) r Pa t h. October 29, 2025 Jessica Jagoe City Administrator City of Arden Hills 1245 Highway 96 W Arden Hills, MN 55112 Dear Ms. Jagoe and members of the Arden Hills City Council, 2 1 Attachment A 101 Arcien Hills, MN bb112 Phone: 612-638-1500 Fax: 612-706-0811 www.sparkpath.org My name is Colleen Feller, and I'm contacting you on behalf of SparkPath, a 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization located in Bethel's Anderson Center at 2 Pine Tree Drive. SparkPath is the nonprofit "arm" of BrightWorks, a Minnesota Service Cooperative. SparkPath and BrightWorks both office at the same location. SparkPath houses our K-12 education enrichment programs (student conferences and academic competitions) for elementary, middle, and high school students in the seven -county Twin Cities metro area. SparkPath is hosting Minnesota's second Braille Challenge on Saturday, February 14, 2026, in our office space at the Anderson Center. The Braille Challenge, offered by the Braille Institute, is a national literacy competition for students in grades 1-12 who read braille. Participating students will complete contests in the following categories: Spelling, Reading Comprehension, Proofreading, Charts & Graphs, and Speed & Accuracy. In 2025, we brought the Braille Challenge to Minnesota students for the first time. Twelve students from across the state competed, and four students qualified for the Braille Challenge Finals in Los Angeles in June! About 70 people (students, their families, teachers, and volunteers) attended the event. Some families from outstate Minnesota stayed overnight in Arden Hills. We expect even greater participation at our 2026 event! I am reaching out to ask for a $650 donation through the "Gateway Twin Cities" initiative to purchase 50 T-shirts that we can give to the competing students and to volunteers for free. We are working with a local T-shirt vendor who will host a "shop" online so that we can sell shirts starting in mid -November. We expect the students' families and friends and supporters from the state's Blind and Visually Impaired community to purchase T-shirts from the online shop and wear them in the months leading up to the event. On the following page is a T-shirt design my team has been working on. We would feature "Arden Hills, MN" on the back of the shirt to promote the city. Our vision: To expand curiosity, confidence, and creativity in students.