The most wonderful thing happened to Foster Your Dream last week. A Broadway Company REACHED OUT TO US TO INVITE US TO SEE THEIR SHOW. Wait for it … wait for it …. BIG FISH has invited Foster Your Dream Kids and Caregivers to see their show this Saturday Night on Broadway. What an incredible gift for the Holidays.
The Company Manager of ANNIE, Heidi Neven, chose to make a connection for us, totally unsolicited, to Katie Pope who is the Assistant Company Manager of BIG FISH the Musical. Katie Pope reached out to FYD on Friday … totally out of the blue … and extended the generous invitation!
I’m not sure that you kind folks reading this article understand the magnitude of such a gift. When I first started my mission of taking Kids in the ACS system and their families to see real, first class theatre on Broadway, I was mostly ignored. The one time I was hung up on, I almost gave up trying. To purchase 100 tickets for any Broadway Musical these days, even at a group rate, would cost between 4000 – 10,000 dollars. But Broadway Theatre is special. It takes a lot of courage for investors to pony up millions of dollars and take a leap of faith to put on a show. There are hundreds of people working hard to make the event shine. The theatre district is a-buzz with activity that is generated by the money, blood, sweat and tears of a very special community. So I kept going.
Even though I described the not-so-good behavior of some of this awesome community, I found that many, many people spent time and energy with me on the phone trying to help me brainstorm ways I could get these kids to see a show! Because our theatre goers are unique, many of the audience-outreach programs didn’t apply. Having kids participate in an ongoing theatre development program that required classes and commitments was out of the question due to myriad reasons. Our kids are often moved around. They can be shuttled from home to home from family members to foster families. Many grandparents are the primary caregivers and this aging population is all of a sudden thrown into child rearing 2.0 just when they had planned to sit quietly and enjoy the spoils of their long lives! Often family members are in another state. Trying to describe the unique nature of the needs FYD exists to meet, I often tried to explain that “we are a little bit like Make A Wish Foundation for healthy children in the Foster Care System. Please help us one dream at a time!”
My feeling always was that once the word got out into the Broadway community, my wish for this awesome group of citizens would be realized and a steady stream of tickets would be made available to us so young minds could be ‘opened up’ and magical theatre could be ‘poured in.’ I also knew that harried caregivers would benefit greatly from being able to sit back and take a breath while enjoying a show. Thanks to the benevolent and tight knit Broadway Theatre Community my dream seems to be coming to fruition and for this I will forever be grateful.
BIG FISH, here we come! Because of you and all those who have paved the way to the hallowed Broadway Theaters, we feel special and loved. Thanks for flinging the doors open. BRAVO! ~~ Sue Wolf, Founder.