Bethesda’s Imagination Stage and Montgomery County Public Schools are working to bring 3,300 third graders to a performance at the theater, a task that involves raising $150,000 for transportation costs.
So on Saturday, during Imagination Stage’s 2013 Gala, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr was featured in a video driving a bus full of third graders to Bethesda before speaking to attendees in a bus driver hat.
“I value the arts and the way they complement academic learning in the schools. One of the pillars of our new strategic planning framework is social-emotional learning,” Starr said. “The arts provide a great way for children to build these essential life skills.”
The initiative would bring third graders from 27 Title I schools, schools that serve low-income communities, to a performance of “Cinderella: the Remix.” The program, which the theater and school system hope to start next year, would also include a pre-field trip video study guide and a workshop after the trip.
A live auction at the gala raised $120,000 for the first phase of the program.
Imagination Stage also put the fundraising effort on power2give.org, a Kickstarter-like fundraising site launched in June by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. Five dollars will fund the bus cost for one student.
Photo via Imagination Stage
