To the editor: This year the Attleboro Cultural Council turns 25. This major milestone is the perfect time to reflect on the important role that arts and culture play in making our community such a unique place in which to live, work and visit.

Many residents may not know this, but the Attleboro Cultural Council supports an array of programs and activities in the arts, sciences and humanities that reach all segments of our community. They range from the PASS program providing financial support for school kids to attend museums and the YMCA Summer Band to the Chaminade Opera Group and Hats Off to Seniors.

The council is comprised of dedicated volunteers, who take an annual appropriation of funds from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and grant these funds to artists, organizations, schools and other local initiatives that meet our communities' distinctive needs. This funding strengthens our civic pride, enhances the education of our children and supports some of our most cherished cultural institutions and traditions.

We hope to continue to provide funding for the Flower Show at the Attleboro Museum Center for the Arts, the TriBoro Youth Theatre, events at the public library, the Attleboro Area Industrial Museum and the Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary. We also hope to see the Riverbank Mural Project completed as well as revive and renew the New Moon Arts Festival.

But there is so much more that we can do. State support for the Attleboro Cultural Council has remained flat in recent years, following devastating budget cuts to MCC in 2002. Each year there are many worthy requests for funding that we cannot meet for lack of resources. We hope to change that by demonstrating to our elected leaders in Massachusetts state government that investment in community arts and culture is money well spent. For the past 25 years the Attleboro Cultural Council has connected state support for arts and culture with the people and places that make Attleboro special. We thank the community for its support over those years, and we look forward to continuing in the years ahead.

If anyone would like to join the Attleboro Cultural Council they should send a letter of interest to the mayor's office at City Hall.

Christopher O'Neil, Attleboro

THIS WRITER is chairman of the Attleboro Cultural Council.