Emily is a very social elementary student in one of the Special Education classrooms where we teach. While she loves to interact with people, she’s intimidated by large crowds. It’s not easy for her to perform, and when she’s invited to do an activity, she never wants to come to the middle of the circle, where she’s the center of attention.
Upstream Arts Teaching Artists meet Emily where she’s at, encouraging her to participate from the edge of the circle, and to grow towards the center. Emily’s classroom teacher recently noted, “Because you allow her to participate from where she’s sitting, it hasn’t inhibited her. It has allowed her to take risks at her level of comfort. And at the end of each session, she finds her way to the middle.”
Your support of Upstream Arts makes it possible for students like Emily to find success, to grow more confident, and to build skills they will use throughout life. Because of your generosity, we were able to work in 33 classrooms this fall, receiving rave feedback from our partner educators:
“It’s been an awesome semester. As always we are honored to have Upstream Arts in our classroom. It’s just amazing to see the growth of our students and their creative side come to life. Thank you so much to all of you for sharing your talents and enthusiasm with us all.”
With huge thanks we acknowledge the following supporters who have contributed since our last update:
Sharon Alton; Delphine and Michael Barringer-Mills; Marie France and William Beitz; Susan and Allan Carneol; Joe and Jane Cavanaugh, in honor of Julie Guidry’s leadership; Kathleen Cobb; Kathy and Thomas Colaizy; Rochelle and Regan Cox; Avery Cropp; Emily Davidson; Gayle Duncan; Nils Dybvig and Michele Braley; Jackie and Lynne Finney in honor of Jess Finney; Thomas and Marilyn Gales; Lee and Serge Garces; Chris and Wendy Gennaula; Sue Gibson and Neill Merck; Robert Goodfellow; Jean Greenwood; Karen and Dan Grow; David and Jackie Guidry; Julie and Matt Guidry; Drucie Haddock; Dale and Rose Haning; Donna Harris; Linda Hayen, in honor of Veronica Langer; Alana Horton; Jason Howard; Christine Hurney; Dean Jensen; Edward N. and Carol Johnson; Jennifer Jones; Anton and Kelly Jones; Theresa Lynn Landry; Justin Lansing; Jack and Laura Lee; Haley and Oliver Lerner; Norah Long; Carol Lowe, in honor of Ryan Hoag; Mary Lyng and Rosemary McDonough; Judy Lysne and Alex Petterson; Linda and James Madsen; Linda and Randy Madson; Brian and Chrissie Mahaffy; Alicia Marchioni; Brian and Libby Marx; Ann L. Mavis; Angie McGuire; Tabitha Montgomery; Kenneth Mounger, in memory of Marilyn Mounger; Eric Mueller and Burt Coffin; Katie Munster; Linda and Bill Murphy; Julianna Muthu; Margaret and Douglas Nathan, in honor of Maggie Quinlan; Tom and Darlene Neidlinger; Kirstin Nesbitt; Stephen Oesterle; Katie Piehl and Richard Knowlton; Bob Pranis and Veronica Weadock; Catherine Quinlan; Tip and Ann Ray; Noël Raymond and Amy Finch; James Schreiber; Alina Schroeder and Chuck Day; Jon and Karen Schwalbe; Sue Scott and Ron Peluso; Mary and Tom Seitz; Gillian Spence; Alan C. and Jean W. Thiel, in honor of Charlie Frawley; Kate Weiss, in honor of Canae Weiss; Andy and Sally Zimney; Chubb Corporate Giving Employee Matching; Lexis Nexis Employee Matching; Target Circle; The Caterpillar Foundation Employee Matching; The Graham Smith Team, Keller Williams Realty; United Health Group, and 3 anonymous donors.
It takes $100,000 in individual donations each fiscal year to sustain Thanks to your generosity, we are already $42,610 of the way towards closing the funding gap. Here’s what it will take this spring to close the gap before our fiscal year ends on June 30, 2020:
$7,390 by April 30, 2020 to support Spring residencies,
$20,000 in matching gifts, and
$30,000 in individual investments at our annual fundraiser and celebration on Monday, May 18 at the American Swedish Institute.
Your investment of any amount today goes directly towards supporting students like Emily, prompting rave reviews from educators, and cultivating the lifelong creative growth of individuals with and without disabilities, coming together in connected community.
Click here to join our community of supporters today by making a tax-deductible gift in any amount.