Dear friends,

I have received some letters of some of you expressing the difficulty for some of you to afford the ticket price for my benefit party in Gymnich. Be sure that I too have felt concerned in trying to keep the prices down as much as possible and so all the more do I feel very sorry for those that cannot afford coming. Be sure we will keep you in our hearts on that evening and I thank you for your thoughts and concerns in this matter. Let me explain my intention in all of this and how we have tried all to make it possible for everyone to come. First of all the students of Togo are personally coming with Patter Etienne. As they are doing a little European tour with concerts in France, Holland and Belgium they asked me, if I could organise something. I had the intention to take it a bit easier this summer but I said yes. With that there were no ticket prices for the planes however with that there was not enough time to get the same service and hall as last year. We asked the Castle Gymnich and they proposed to give us the tent for free. However we will have to take care of the rest. We will have to take all the drinks and food cost on our own. So we decided to make this a benefit party. I don't think we would have been able to make food for 250 people nor would I think it would have tasted good. We surprisingly have gotten some really great tombola prizes like two Walden guitars, some handmade wedding hats, jewellery and much more prizes and thanks to many small voluntary help we are able to make this whole thing happen at all. We will have all the help from friends and they will be sleeping at my home as to avoid hotel costs, as too make it possible that only costs like drinks and fruits are at stake so that we can make as much purely beneficial for the project as possible. Be sure we will keep you updated with the sum that we come up with for this project - that's a promise. I thank you for your trust and you can be sure I will do my best to honour it. I am very thankful to all those who take the time and effort in coming and I look forward to these intimate evenings. I look forward to singing with my friends from Togo and sharing with you first handed the joy and happiness I was able to experience with them.

All My Love

Maite Kelly