November Project @ Lincoln Stairs

Dear Superintendent Vietzke,

My name is Lauren Bateman, and I’m writing to you from Ankara, Turkey, to ask you to please reconsider your position and allow November Project DC to run the Lincoln Stairs and to use the amazing spaces in DC to build community and get people excited about the city.

The first time I was asked to write about NPDC’s impact on my life, I was responding to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. I work in international humanitarian response, and travel frequently- sometimes for weeks or months at a time. My adult life has been very transitory, and it’s been difficult to keep in touch with friends who are often scattered across the globe. The various cities I’ve lived in have only been home bases, never homes. That all changed when I moved to DC and was one of the first people to join November Project when it started in 2013.

The friends I’ve made in NP have encouraged me to run my first 5 miles and then my first half marathon. They’ve brought me meals after major surgery, and checked in on me when I came home with dengue. They’ve video-chatted with me and sent virtual hugs when I was in Guinea for 6 months for the Ebola Response, and most recently they’ve been gentle with me as I work through significant burnout and symptoms of PTSD.

The steps of Lincoln are where my 92-year old grandmother became NP’s oldest member ever, where an international colleague asked me to bring her while she was in town because she saw my sunrise photos on Facebook, and where I met some of the most important people in my life. They are where I finally learned to be kind to myself after a lifetime of self-criticism. I’ve been away from NP for almost a year and a half, and am moving back to DC to pursue a graduate degree this fall. I am really looking forward to rejoining my family at Lincoln. I will still go if we can’t run the stairs, but it just won’t be the same.

Please excuse this long letter, and please let us continue to be among NPS’ biggest fans and most vocal supporters. I ask that you let me return home to a community I’ve come to rely on more than I ever could have imagined.

Kind regards,

Lauren Bateman