Legacy Letters premieres in Baton Rouge | Entertainment/Life

Blake Brewer spends his days on a mission to inspire one million people to write a letter to their loved one, telling them difficult things, repairing relationships and building bridges to a confident future.

After dealing with the loss of his father, Brewer created The Legacy Letter Challenge to empower people to express their feelings in writing to their children or other loved ones to impact their lives and futures.

Brewer was swimming with his father in Hawaiian waters when his father drowned. In the hazy trauma of the tragedy, Brewer’s mother gave him a letter from his father, which he took with him on a family vacation. At age 19, reading his father’s words changed Brewer’s life.

“Thanks to this letter, my dad was there for me in my darkest moments. His voice was with me,” Brewer said.

Baton Rouge men and women joined Brewer in his Legacy Letter Challenge, believing that opening up the city would have a positive impact on Baton Rouge. On Wednesday, October 9, about 200 people gathered at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge to learn how to write a letter. Brewer gave participants training on how to format and write a letter to their children or loved one.

Not just any letter, but a specific letter that will leave a legacy.

“Are you preparing your children for the challenges they will face?” Brewer asked the audience.

Many people find sitting down to write something daunting, so Brewer and his team have broken the process down into eight manageable and accessible steps: an introduction, an apology, a promise of unconditional love, a declaration of pride, a statement of faith in the other person, a memoir, life advice, and closure. .

Brewer emphasized the expression of responsibility for the part of an apology – conveying unconditional love and pride in who your loved one is, not in what they have done.

At each event, Brewer introduces each section and provides time to write a rough draft using the Legacy Letter workbook. The workbook includes a place to write and an appendix with character traits and phrases.

In preparing the workbook and presentation, Brewer drew on leadership and parenting principles from authors such as Ken Canfield, Meg Meeker, Paul Tripp, James Clear and John Maxwell, who helped him develop the letter template.

“I know that in many ways it is not easy to write this letter,” Brewer said, “but the reward comes in the end.”

Baton Rouge City Premiere

A native of Shreveport, Brewer has lived in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, but has many ties to Louisiana. The launch of Legacy Letters in Baton Rouge included strategic business partnerships and library collaborations.

“We want to create something that is sustainable,” he said. “When companies buy our program, they do so to make an impact, but they realize its value. The letter helps their employees develop emotional intelligence and become better team members.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library partners with the Legacy Letter Challenge to offer workshops, writing sessions and online tools to patrons with a library card.

Mary Stein, assistant library director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, said the library’s initial interest in Legacy Letters was the opportunity to increase literacy and provide adults with more opportunities to write. Writing letters is a good exercise for people learning to read.

“We have a lot of adults who come here for recreational or business programs, as well as consumer health and education programs, so we have a tradition of offering workshops and support groups,” Stein said. “We intend to use the same template for workshops at the library. The Heritage Letter hits the mark for us because it is doable.”

Library staff have attended sessions with Brewer and can provide support and instruction to anyone wishing to write their own Heritage Letter. Groups can go to the library together, or individuals can attend Legacy Letter sessions. The library will also provide the option to purchase an online toolkit and webinar.

“The library’s mission is about accessing and connecting people, not only information and resources, material technology, but also experiences, to positively change our lives,” Stein said. “For me, it’s about moving the needle forward and building the capacity of our citizens, our community here. It is positive, intentional, true. It allows for true sharing and thoughtful communication.”

Stein believes that the power of a letter is that people can come back to it and read its words whenever they want.

“Just translating something from the brain, where it floats around and is constantly changing, to something concrete on a piece of paper is transformative,” she said.

Ripple effects

The day Brewer’s father died was the worst day of his life, he said. But his father gave him his letter as a gift, which gave Brewer purpose. From stages and halls across the country, Brewer now talks about the day he felt most alone and vulnerable, wanting to spread the power of the letter.

“Coming to Baton Rouge where about 200 people are sitting, writing this letter, creating it for their family and doing something that at one point was just an idea is amazing. It’s extremely satisfying to be able to honor my dad in this way.” Brewer said. “There will be an impact, a domino effect – we can’t even measure the domino effect on the city.”

For more information on writing your own letter, visit www.legacyletter.com/batonrouge. The Legacy livestream will take place on Monday, November 11, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.