November 7, 2001

ATLAS SPIRIT USA UPDATE

Dear Model Railroader,

First, I would like to thank everyone who has made the ATLAS “SPIRIT USA” campaign such an overwhelming success. With less than 8 days to go before we stop taking orders, sales to date are over $75,000. Your interest and generosity has proven what we have known all along, that model railroaders are truly caring and giving people.    

Atlas is in the process of determining which charities will be the benefactors of your kindness. Whether we can find one that is most deserving, or multiple charities that we feel should be given a share, will be dependent on the specific work they are doing, as well as assurances that the money will go directly to the victims and their families most in need and not to administrative expenditures of the charity.

I would like to briefly explain to you why I felt compelled to go down this fund raising road with you. I, like many other citizens throughout the United States and the world, was horrified by the tragedy resulting from the attacks of September 11th. I also felt frustrated about knowing what exactly I could do to help.

I was born in New York City and grew up, in part, on Long Island, across the street from a firehouse. These firemen were the greatest bunch of guys a kid could know and motivated me to become a volunteer firefighter later in life. In addition, many police, fire and other uniformed service personnel throughout the United States just happen to be model railroaders. This connection turned into what could I do, then what possibly Atlas could do, and finally what the model railroad community might do. The answer is, apparently, quite a lot.

I discussed my feelings at our weekly marketing meeting and everyone immediately pitched in. I’d like to thank the employees at Atlas who assisted in getting this campaign so quickly off the ground.  The commitment of Atlas, along with your enthusiastic involvement, has resulted in a notable achievement that encourages us to consider one more offering of products, based upon your recommendations, later in the year.

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support and I will provide a final report to you in February once the Spirit USA products arrive and we’ve collected the funds.

For those of you who have not yet selected your N, HO or O scale SPIRIT USA products, please place your order now.

Sincerely,

Tom Haedrich, CEO

Atlas Model Railroad Company

President, Atlas O, LLC