February 3, 2010
By Carmen Carroquino
Guest Reporter
With the words and fighting spirit of "We're all in this together," made famous by Disney's mega-hit "High School Musical," the Winter Springs Performing Arts program performed a 12-hour sing-a-thon to much success.
Raising an estimated $1,900 on Saturday by keeping the music going non-stop and hosting a silent auction, the performing arts group was able to keep the doors open to their home, aptly named The Stage, for the time being.
They raised $3,700 over the two-week fundraising effort, and have $15,000 in pledges. But that still comes short of their $30,000 goal.
"We are officially re-opening the program," program founder Shanda Batchelor said. "Our efforts have been successful at least temporarily. This gives us the chance to hang on and keep things going for a little while longer."
Batchelor said she spoke with her building management company and asked them to lower her monthly rent so she could continue making payments. The management company "is graciously working with us," she said, and has told her she's guaranteed the space through the end of May.
Batchelor said the money raised from their Save the Stage Campaign will go toward paying rent through April 1.
The payment for May has not yet been paid because of their lack of funds, she said. However, she's confident the program will be able to raise the money by then.
Before the good news even came about, Batchelor and her band of theater performers were all jazzed up for their sing-a-thon.
With about 30 children participating in the impromptu musical numbers throughout the day, Batchelor said about 2,500 songs were performed in the 12-hour period.
For each song that was sung, money was donated to the program by community members and parents who love what the program has done for their children.
Songs were counted based on how many people participated in performing them, Batchelor said.
Money raised from the song pledges went to paying the rent for their production space.
Singing and dancing all day to those songs from Broadway musicals such as "Seussical" and "High School Musical" was Bachelor's 14-year-old daughter, Alysha.
"This place is really important to me," she said. "It's so much like a second home that I wouldn't know what to do with myself without it."
The eighth-grader at Indian Trails Middle said she cried all night at the news of her mom possibly having to shut down the program.
"The closest place for a program like this is an hour away," she said. "I've been here from the beginning and would hate to see it all go away."
For parents Diana Strembicki and Tere Lamontagne, the program brings as much pleasure to them as it does to their daughters, who have formed a friendship over their love of theater productions.
"This is a place they can focus their energy and support one another's talents," Lamontagne said.
"Each child gets to show their potential and come out of their shell," Strembicki said.
With a continuing theme of building self-confidence found in the program among parents, Tony Johnson, parent to two daughters, ages 13 and 11, said the program allows children to showcase their personalities, become individuals and realize their strengths and weaknesses.
He also said that the program better prepares children who want to pursue theater in high school, college or even as a career option.
Batchelor said with all the budget cuts, the arts programs are usually the first to go in schools, so she wanted to have a local program that picked up where some school systems have left off.
Not completely out of the woods yet, the Winter Springs Performing Arts program is now in phase two of its Save the Stage Campaign.
The program is in need of a new executive director, a working business plan, an event-planning committee, corporate sponsors, grants and community support through petitions and written letters justifying a need for the program to continue.
In regard to grants, Winter Springs Mayor John Bush said even if funding was asked for by the program, it would be unlikely to get any. He said the city just isn't in a position to be giving money away right now.
In the meantime, Batchelor and her staff is taking advantage of the window of opportunity by brainstorming ideas to continue the fundraising efforts.
In the works is a possible partnership with another local theater company that could showcase performances at The Stage where a portion of the proceeds would go to the program. Batchelor said she even started teaching a drama class at a local private school to bring in funds.
Cory Skeates, president of the Oviedo-Winter Springs Chamber of Commerce, said the WSPA could join the Chamber for possible help in fundraising efforts.
"We would love to see them succeed, along with any program related to arts education," he said.
Discussions between the Chamber of Commerce and Winter Springs Performing Arts were brought up a while back, but no partnerships for fundraising events have been made, Skeates said, even though he would like to see it happen.
However, for the time being, Batchelor and her students still have a place to call home and a stage to call their very own.
Visit www.winterspringsarts.org for more information and to donate.
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