March 1, 2018

Curtain Call Inc.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY GIVING DAY!


THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT ON GIVING DAY!!!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION!
It truly TAKES A VILLAGE to support community theatre! And our village is vibrant and strong because of the amazing arts community that we have and the people like you who contributed to Curtain Call on GIVING DAY.

You are among the 1,200+ individuals that supported Curtain Call on this 5th Annual GIVING DAY. Thanks also to Fairfield County's Community Foundation for hosting the event, to lead sponsor Bank of America, and the dozens of other sponsors that supported this incredible day of philanthropy for Fairfield County.

 I am overwhelmed by the incredible level of support for not only Curtain Call, but for the 400+ nonprofit organizations that participated. Just shy of $1.5 million dollars was raised yesterday by nearly 14,000 individuals. And that doesn't take into account the thousands of dollars provided by sponsors that was used for bonus awards! THAT'S INCREDIBLE!

As Stamford's only year-round non-profit producing theatre company, we are blessed to have many loyal patrons and fans. There is no way that we could produce 12 to 14|full-scale productions each year as well as provide educational workshops, scholarships, free outdoor Shakespeare and much more, without contributed funds from generous corporations, small businesses, foundations, and most notably, individuals. Asking for money is one of the most challenging parts of my job, but ask I must. What's truly heart-warming is that when I ask, people respond.

In my opinion, there are no better fans than Curtain Call fans...more than 1,200 of them contributed on Giving Day! (My favorite part of the day was at about 1am when a senior patron called me at the office to make sure that was a good time to contribute...he obviously knows I'm a night owl...that's how dedicated our fans are.)

I've been a part of the Stamford/Fairfield County arts community most of my life, so I am thrilled to see that nearly 25% of the money raised yesterday went to Arts and Culture organizations - a clear sign of how highly valued those organizations are to our community. Arts organizations not only entertain, but enlighten and engage a community in many ways.

As chair of Stamford's Arts and Culture Commission, I ask you to take an active role. Go see a play, a concert, a museum exhibit. Call or write your elected officials at the local, state and national levels and let them know the arts are important to you. We are most grateful to all our municipal legislators who have continued to support live theatre in our city through Curtain Call as they have entrusted us with managing the wonderful facilities at The Sterling Farms Theatre Complex. 

To all of my friends far and near, I hope my invasion of your in boxes and Facebook pages was entertaining, informative and maybe even made you smile a bit.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, staff, and everyone else at Curtain Call, please accept my most sincere thanks to all who made our Giving Day participation successful.
Thank you, seems woefully inadequate, so trust me, that I say it with the utmost sincerity. 

"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standard of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens." President John F. Kennedy

I think our late president would be proud of the state of the arts in Fairfield County... I know I am.

Most sincerely,

Lou Ursone
Executive Director