Help Us Find A Place to Share Our Success

Hi, my name is Jessica and I'm fundraising for my public charter school. I've been a music teacher for over 15 years but this is my first year at the Utica Academy of Science elementary School. My students have been working very hard and would love to debut a performance to share their skills with their family and friends. They've been singing, playing instruments, reading rhythms, collaborating, improvising rhythms and building on life skills through their music education. With just over 400 students and our current situation with the covid-19 regulations, our school cannot accommodate all the students and parents that would like to come together in our school community to support the students performance. I've reached out to various local colleges and performance spaces and could only find one place. This place would allow the students to perform their winter concert in December and would allow all of their parents to safely attend this performance. The Stanley theater on Genesee Street in Utica has given us a discounted price which includes use of the stage, lights and sound technicians, a fire marshal and security (All which are included and mandatory in order to have a performance here). I've also reached out to community organizations as far as trying to obtain a grant for this but haven't had any luck as of yet. Our performance is supposed to be on the 21st of December at 6:00 p.m. This would be a closed performance for students, our school community and their families but not open to the public. With your donation you would also be able to come and see our amazing scholars and what they've been working so hard to achieve so far. We have a very short window of time to secure this location and get all our logistics in line. The students are ready and just waiting for a place to perform. Our goal is that this music program can bring the community together by allowing families and students both to understand and experience firsthand what music can do for a child. Not only as a performer, but as being part of a group and part of a team. I've seen firsthand what a music program can do to help bring students and their families together as a whole community. What better way to instill this value in our students than to have the community come together to celebrate their achievements. By allowing them to perform in a local community space, We are sending the message that what they're doing is important and that they are important All well showing what this duty community has to offer to our area. With your help we can be one step closer to achieving our goal and allowing our students to perform in-person at the Stanley theater in Utica. Our only other option is to do a virtual performance where students are videotaped at school and the performance is sent out to parents to view. Obviously this is not ideal and we hope that you can make all the students hard work worthwhile! This would be such an amazing experience that would have a life long lasting effect on them that they would surely never forget!