Helping my 10 year old daughter follow her dreams
Hi, my name is Shyra and I'm raising money for my daughter, Samantha. Samantha has been invited to the IMTA conference in Orlando, Florida. We were supposed to go in July this year but with all the struggles of single parenting I was not able to find the sponsorships and get enough donations to make it happen for her. I am continuing the fundraiser and will continue to work 3 jobs if necessary to get my daughter to success and reach her goals. IMTA stands for "International Modeling and Talent Association" through "Seattle Talent." This amazing opportunity will allow my daughter to not only experience lifelong friendships, but will teach her confidence, responsibility, goal setting, money management to get herself there and would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for her.
People continue to think that this conference is a "scam." It's not, its a wonderful opportunity for many young actors, singers and young professionals to succeed and be heard. Samantha and other child actors get an opportunity to be seen and known in a pool of never ending talent.
I am doing everything I can to get my daughter to this conference. I'm a struggling single Mom and have more on my plate than most single moms do. I continue to work hard every day to create opportunities for my daughter to reach her goal in getting to this conference. Since Samantha is 10 years old and has never been to Disneyworld or Disneyland or Hawaii before, I'm also trying to do my best in making that dream of hers a reality too.
With all the hard work she's doing and all the hard work I am doing, I am crossing my fingers I can make this all happen for her. Samantha has been working tirelessly at knitting, painting, weaving and busking on her ukulele to earn money for our trip to Florida.
Since we were not able to get the sponsors in June we are once again crossing our fingers for January of next year. To let people know that IMTA is a real thing and not a scam, it's a "world's leading talent event,” it's "designed to promote emerging talent to leading agents, managers, and casting directors."
This information is all online and information and available for our potential sponsors and donors.
There are too many successful IMTA alum to list, but let's just say there are many, and at the same time a handful of extremely lucky, and talented people that have become quite successful through IMTA.
For me, this is simply an amazing opportunity for my child. I want to give this to my daughter and have this for her. I want to be able to say I did my very best in reaching out to sponsors and donors and to share her success.
I want to also share our story. Samantha is an amazing child and has gone through so much and seen too much at her young age. She is beyond resilient, kind and doing her best to reach her goals. She has witnessed the struggles of a challenging marriage, a challenging divorce and the trauma of losing our home. We have had to move several times and the financial struggles of being a single parent and doing everything I can for my child has been quite overwhelming most of the time.
My daughter has kept me afloat and kept me going.
When I have made comments thinking that she deserves a better mom she would reply, "You're the best Mom for me." it warmed my heart to think that she still has so much confidence and support and love for someone who struggles as much as I do. Not only financially but emotionally and mentally and physically too.
Samantha has taught me to not complain and to basically think about the positive and the good in life. My daughter is my rock and if I can make this happen for her and take her to Disneyworld too (an added bonus) and share this experience with others, it would be so amazing.
As much as my daughter loves acting, dancing, singing and playing the ukulele, the experience of just making it to the conference and all the hustle and bustle and the experience of it all will be enough for me and I truly believe enough for her too.
Life is about experiences and if I can make this one become an unforgettable amazing experience for her then at least we can say, we did it. We made it!
She can say, she did her very best and then take a break after a very busy week of interviews and events and relax in the chaos of Disneyworld at the end of it all.
Samantha has been wanting this since she was invited over several months ago. She has not given up on her goal to get there and I will not give up on her goal to get there either.
We are hoping that through our hard work, her busking on her ukulele at Greenlake and creating hand woven knitting art and paintings and with me working several different jobs, we are very hopeful through our hard work, potential sponsors and donors that I can make this dream of my daughters become a reality.
I wanted to add that Samantha's confidence went from being a shy and insecure child through my challenging marriage and the my challenging divorce and having to move out of our home, to a radiant confident child again, all thanks to her acting and singing classes at “Seattle Talent.”
It is such an amazing thing to see your child go through so much trauma and then through acting and singing and music classes, come back out of her shell and into her original self again. Truly amazing.
I do hope you can join us on this journey and hope that with donations and sponsors we can also get the tools we need to create a documentary on our journey for my daughters adventures in acting.
Thank you so much to everyone who read this.
There's so much more I'd like to share but I think I'll save the rest for my "someday book." Thank you again!
In Kindness,
Shyra
The breakdowns of the cost of the trip:
Performer Package - for Samantha
$4,950
Includes
Preparation Meetings prior to IMTA this is all held by Seattle Talent virtually and is wonderful information and help in gaining the children's confidence and preparing them to perform in front of local scouts and managers.
(From the meetings we did attend when we thought we'd have the money to go this month, it helped Samantha so much with her posture, her speech (she has a lisp) and her focus. She has many symptoms of the autism but none are severe enough to get the help we need for it. Instead we were recommended to go to an "occupational therapist" for help with someone who is high functioning. I have been told we are all on a spectrum. With that said, these classes help with anyone struggling with day to day tasks).
The package also includes: 5 nights accommodations at the "Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort"
Her IMTA "Performance Registration and Badge"
Samantha's participation fees to perform 6 competitions
Samantha's photo in the official IMTA program book
Samantha's admittance to ALL the IMTA workshops and seminars
Opportunity to be seen by top agents, managers and casting directors
Ticket to the awards night party and the awards night gala dinner
opportunity to auction for the IMTA fashion show and the Talent Showcase
Management and marketing services during and after IMTA
Professional hair and make up services provided on the 3 days of competition
Parent Package - $2,250
5 nights stay at the Hilton Bonnet Creek Resort
Mom's IMTA registration and badge
Mom's admittance to all IMTA workshops and seminars with Samantha (she's only ten so I won't be leaving her alone in any event)
Mom's ticket to the awards night party and the awards night gala dinner
Mom's admittance to all open competitions to watch Samantha perform.
Clothes and shoes for the competitions - she has some for when we thought we would be there in July this month but I'm worried she will outgrow everything by January. She's sprouting up like a weed.
Flights to Orlando - $300 to $400 depending on the time, the date etc. We don't have the exact dates from Seattle Talent yet for the trip in January. But this is the cost as of tonight for a roundtrip airfare in January 2022.
Car Rentals - $78.60 a day unless we can find an RV company to sponsor our trip and we can take a cross country road trip.
Gas - $200 is the estimate online but that is ever changing. I'm also thinking if we can get an RV company to sponsor our trip then the rental for the rv and the gas would obviously be different. I'll figure that option out in a bit.
Food - $231 for a weeks worth of food. That seems a little high but that's what the stats show online. Hopefully there will be a fridge and maybe stove or at least microwave in the room and a grocery store close by. Yikes.
Cost of Doggy Daycare and or Dogsitter while we are away for the week - (we rescued an amazing pup in July 2020 before she started attending acting classes. We would love to take our pup with us but that would mean renting an RV for a cross country road trip. That would be fun too so maybe depending on the sponsorships we can get.
I found a doggy daycare in Woodinville, "Roscoe's Ranch." - It seems like an amazing place for our rescue pup who has PTSD. - $350 for 7 days this does not include tax. I'm thinking more and more about checking into the cost of renting an rv for the trip and simply bringing our rescue pup with us to Orlando. Yikes.
Disneyworld Tickets (if we have the extra funds to do so) - $109 PER DAY!! per person. Yikes. O.K. well, we shall see if Disneyworld can be added in after the IMTA conference. That's not including anything but the tickets. Oh boy, it looks like this Momma may be working round the clock to add on a Disneyworld trip.
Souvenirs (she's allowed two) and maybe an ice cream.
