Surprise Gift From a Celebrity

When you least expect it, a friend of Foster Your Dream and a celebrity to boot, thinks of us and reaches out by sending a surprise gift of books to one of our clients. This is what Mavis Leno did!  As usual, we can not show you the face of our super happy recipient but the books displayed above came to the home of our client all the way from a bookstore in England!  What a delight.

Included in the package was a handwritten note from Ms. Leno explaining that these were her favorite books when she was a child and she wanted our special girl to enjoy them as well.

This generous kindness, with a special personal touch from someone who has a very public profile, made a great memory for one of our children.

It may seem like a small detail but by making a foster child feel special and worthy, a donor like Ms. Leno can boost the pride of a young person in being a foster child. I have seen over and over again how an opportunity like theatre or books that can be shared with an entire foster family, can increase the confidence of a child that their placement in the home is welcome and secure.

Bravo and our deepest thanks to the kindest of benefactors, Ms. Mavis Leno!

Theatre Builders Camp for Dream Kid

Summer 2016 brings one of our Dream Kids to a very special 5 day camp at Riverside Church.

theatre-builders-group

What joy at the end of a 5 day 9-5 theatre camp.

Prep in Pink Sparkles

Prep in Pink Sparkles

Kids arrive …  and the wonderful teacher, Madeline Bender (who is an opera star!) guides the group to write, rehearse and perform a mini-musical!

Pizza Party Rehearsal

Pizza Party Rehearsal

Our client invited me in to an after-camp theatre pizza party where we watched and video taped our client doling out parts to her extended family … many who were visiting from out of town!  As usual, we can not show her face but the family was AMAZING and we all played parts in a sketch called ”The Real Store”.  One of our clients relatives noticed that the sketch was actually ‘real deep’ … which it totally was.  The kids had come up with a concept where children went to a store and asked for “rock candy” and literally got ROCKS for candy.  A request for “gummy worms” got them REAL worms.  The moral of the story?  BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR!  Deep, right?

What a great learning experience for these children.  Then after each sketch the children sang a wonderful song that super-sillified their sketches.

Rehearse Hands Down

Perform Hands Down

 

Rehearse Hands On Hips

Perform Hands On Hips

Rehearse on Point!

Perform on Point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of an enriching and super fun time new friendships were made and unique experiences were had by all.

Goodbye Campers

Goodbye Campers

We hug Ms. Bender goodbye and dream of next year!

Hugging Ms. Bender

Hugging Ms. Bender

Special thanks to our sponsors Mady Julian, Richard Kendall and John Dempsey and to the family of our client who took time and energy to make this all happen seamlessly and with great joy and love! You are all heroes to our mission of providing enriching experiences and dreams come true for our wonderful children and families. July 2016.

 

A Dream of Motown the Musical Comes True

This is what we dream about here at FYD! One of our hard working family expresses interest in seeing the musical MOTOWN before it closes in NY and moves on to the U.S. tour. Enter Miguel Ortiz who arranges for our very special client and her family to be honored guests at the show.  We are so grateful for his enthusiasm for what we do. Yay!  Pure joy.

Motown Joy

Motown Joy

Studying the program.

Studying the program.

Motown Musical Supremes!

Motown Musical Supremes!

 

Motown Jackson Five

Motown Jackson Five

motown-1

Motown The Musical.

 

 

 

 

Thank you, Mr. Ortiz, from the bottom of all our hearts!

 

Rockettes-and-Family-Bonding-Time

The Rockettes Spring Spectacular does more than razzle dazzle!  July 2016

spring-2016-spectacular

Thanks to Donald Yonker (one of our patrons) … we were able to send the fab four female contingency of one of our foster families to see the most awesome Rockettes!  Apparently we made the dream come true of not only our little child client, but her entire family!  This is one of the reasons we are so devoted to making theatre events happen.  Our outings provide a super fun, special, safe place for a family to relax and have an enriching time together that they can TALK about later.  It’s a safe haven for an amazing bonding experience that also provides a memory that might not be in the budget of our hard working and AMAZING foster families.

This is why we love doing it:

rockettes-thumbs-up                                      rockettes-wonder

family-bonding-time

Oh.  This was the favorite thing of the group….THE FASHION SHOW!

rockettes

Foster Kids Hang With Old Hats

What better way to warm up on a cold day but to go to the Signature Theatre (Thanks Colleen Hughes!) and catch a performance of Old Hats and then hang out with the Cast! As usual, we can not show the faces of our young friends so pardon our privacy boxes! 2/2015

FYD OLD HATS 1 USE

old hats smiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oht-postshow

SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE IN THE CAST WHO PAID SPECIAL ATTENTION TO OUR GUESTS!!!

oldhatsart-bubbles

Christmas At BAM

Hard Nut hosts holiday for one lucky family!  December, 2015.

THE HARD NUT

A cascade of wit and wintry beauty featuring Morris’ lyrical modern dance choreography, this lavish,  love letter to a classic story from the straight-laced 1890s to the swinging 70s, with raucous parties, dancing G.I. Joes, whimsical costumes, and a Waltz of the Snowflakes like no other.

THE HARD NUT 1

 

Tchaikovsky’s complete original score, performed live by the 53-piece MMDG Music Ensemble drives this colorful retelling, which playfully preserves the warm spirit of an essential holiday tradition.

 

Thanks to our most wonderful and generous benefactor Dewonnie Frederick, we were ably to send one lucky family to this enriching experience!  Once again we can’t show you our lucky child … but here is that happy smile beneath our hand hewn hide-a-face box!

hard-nut-BAM