What Kindness Accomplished So Far
2019 has already proven that it is going to come and go whether we like it or not! It seems like just yesterday we were posting about featuring our very first cause of the year, The Amarillo Little Theatre Academy. Now, we are just days away from their quarter coming to a close and an opportunity to support a brand new local cause. Before we get to that, let’s recap the first three months of our new Kindness is the Cause initiative. If you haven’t had a chance to learn what Kindness is the Cause is all about, take a moment to watch the video here. Palace is simply trying to do our part to cause and champion kindness by featuring four great local organizations throughout 2019.
During the first quarter of this year, we were able to support The Amarillo Little Theatre Academy which provides dance, acting and vocal classes for ages three through adult. It is a pretty remarkable organization that is causing kindness daily by teaching life lessons to people of all ages! During this quarter we were able to raise over $2,300 for the Amarillo Little Theatre Academy! This is all thanks to our friends at Amarillo Area Foundation who have partnered with us to add funding for the cause of the quarter in addition to the cause lattes that Palace sells. We are so very appreciative of The Amarillo Area Foundation for their efforts to spread kindness in our community.
In addition to the monetary contribution that will be made to ALT Academy, we were able to partner together to put on an amazing event that we called: An ACT of Kindness. Palace and ALT partnered together to create a one day workshop intensive for middle school students in our area that otherwise could not afford or commit to a class at ALT. During this workshop, 37 local middle school students came to the Amarillo Little Theatre. They were fed breakfast and lunch (shout out to the amazing ALT Guild and Board of Directors!) and they got to take part in four learning stations: set design, costumes, stage makeup and acting. We had experts in each area talk to the students about each subject and the students even had hands on experience within those workshop stations. And that was all done just in the morning session! After lunch, the students were given a script and a character in the script and began work on putting together a show to perform for their parents and members of the community. The show was entitled Anxiety is Orange and consisted of several vignette scenes. The students were taken to the costume storage area where they chose a costume for the show and they rehearsed their scenes with seasoned ALT actors and actresses. There were even 10 students that wrote an original monologue and performed that during the 30-minute production. It was absolutely astounding to see these teenagers commit themselves on a Saturday afternoon to something and pull it off like champions. We watched some of the students go from very shy and nervous interaction at the beginning of the day to fully confident actors with no reservations during their performances. We would like to thank Amarillo Little Theater and specifically, the Academy Director, Jason Crespin for putting this together and allowing us to be a part of this amazing event.
We have one last hoorah with the ALT Academy this quarter. Palace will be sponsoring the ALT Academy Give Back Performance featuring Honk The Musical in just two short weeks. 72 ALT Academy students have been preparing and rehearsing Honk The Musical over the last six weeks. Honk opens for public performances next weekend and runs March 29-31 and April 5-7. On Thursday, April 4th, the students are doing a special give back performance. At this performance the audience seats will be filled with kids and families from CASA, Children’s Miracle Network, High Plains Children’s Home, Ronald McDonald House and other great organizations in our community. Many of these families have not ever had the opportunity to experience live theatre. They will get to experience that on this evening absolutely free of charge. It is one of the all-time favorite shows that the ALT Academy students get the privilege of performing.
As this quarter comes to a close and we celebrate all that we were able to accomplish with the Amarillo Little Theatre Academy, we can’t help but look forward to the next great organization that we get the opportunity to support. The second cause of 2019 will be Hope and Healing Place. Hope and Healing Place is an amazing organization that offers a variety of support classes for grieving children and families all at zero cost to the families that need the support. We have had the opportunity to visit the Hope and Healing Place Home and were astonished at the great work that they are doing. They are teaching children that is okay to grieve, and they are using creative and innovative ways for the children to learn and understand the grief process through art and communication and all in a safe environment.
You still have a few more days left this month to support The Amarillo Little Theatre Academy and beginning April 1st, you can support Hope and Healing Place as well. For more information about Kindness is the Cause or these great organizations, check out the links below:
https://www.kindnessisthecause.com/
https://amarillolittletheatre.org/alt-academy
http://www.hopeandhealingplace.org/about/
