For the Love of Letters (F.L.O.L.), presented in collaboration with the National League of American Pen Women™, uses the study of letters as a tool to enhance its international youth leadership development by placing the study of letters in historical, cultural, and social context. F.L.O.L. studies “letters” in the broad meaning of the word, looking at letters’ many meanings, e.g., a written or printed communication addressed to a person or organization and usually but not always transmitted by mail; a symbol or character that is conventionally used in writing and printing to represent a speech sound and that is part of an alphabet; a piece of printing type bearing such a symbol or character; a particular style of type; such types collectively; a formal document granting a right or privilege; and actual terms or wording, or the literal meaning of something, as distinct from an implied meaning or intent.

For the Love of Letters takes a multi-disciplinary approach to studying letters, examining and discussing such issues as:

• The role of letters in history – from Cicero’ s letters, to Lincoln’s letter to the Widow Bixby, to King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and others
• Letters’ place in social discourse
• The ways in which letters as a form of written communication have changed over time – from writing with a quill on parchment, to instant messaging over a cellular telephone
• The formation of letters themselves, as practiced in the art of calligraphy
• The conservation of the printed word
• The love and study of language and the written word
• Techniques of great writers
• And so on

By studying letters in their many forms and meanings, Youth Visions™ will give its youth participants access and opportunity to letters, and the means to take advantage of both.