We're all in this together....

Yes, I know it’s from a cheesy teenage musical, but bear with me and I’ll explain….

This weekend I had the chance to sit and watch the final day of the Junior Theatre Festival that D was a part of this weekend in Atlanta, GA. It’s very easy to simply say…kids doing theatre…that’s cute…and leave it at that. After watching these kids work and perform for each other and listen to their stories, you realize it is so much more. There was one particular group who was awarded the “Spirit of the Festival” award that made me teary. These kids were all set to come to the festival and three weeks before they left, the school pulled their funding and informed them they couldn’t go. Their dedicated teacher pulled his group together and for three weeks they worked and raised money and made it to the festival.

At one point the teachers all came up on stage and performed, “It’s a Hard Knock Life” for all their kids. These underpaid teachers have a special place in heaven for all they do. In a society where we value athletic prowess above the arts so many of these teachers do not have the funds for a quality program and simply make do with what they can and many spend their own money to give this arts students the education they deserve. So many of these kids aren’t good at sports, maybe aren’t the smartest kids, but they love the arts. Without these teachers and their hard work these amazing kids would not have a place to belong.

That day the kids were all treated to a surprise guest, Zach Efron (Troy Bolton from High School Musical) and were taken to the opening night of High School Musical at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. This is a once in a lifetime weekend for these kids and I am so happy that I was able to be there and see it.

It makes my job of raising money for the arts seem so much more important when I see something like that. Kudos to my friends at ITheatrics and MTI for the amazing weekend.