Newsletter Fall 2019

Lift: Continuing to invest in tomorrow's leaders pg. 8

Making a toast to Keep the Promise™ pg. 10

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F A L L

Ian learns adaptability in body and in life pg. 6

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S.T.E.A.M. At this year’s Step Beyond Annual Breakfast, as each graduate spoke at the podium, they proudly shared their intended major and college. In the Class of 2019, most of the students selected majors in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, or Math. There has been national dialogue on how instrumental the arts are in developing young people to be prepared with career and life skills – something we have all known since our founding.

We believe students are selecting these types of majors due to our dance-based approach that values innovation, exploration, and discovery.

We are piloting several new initiatives as part of our current Strategic Plan 2019-2020: Pivot to The Future:

Dawn S. Reese

Chief Executive Officer @DawnSReese

■■ Integrating project-based learning within a multi-disciplinary approach: This year, our summer reading workshop and learning workshops in math and science explored an innovative learning approach where students were asked to use what they are learning and apply it to their daily life experiences through projects and activities. (See pg. 4) ■■ Dance Curriculum Evolution: This fall we will be integrating improvisation, contact improvisation, and choreography in our year-round curriculum in order to further life skills though Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Character, as well as Courage.

■■ Academic Advising and Mentoring: We expanded The Next Step© program with an additional five new Academic Advisors to ensure that students from 6th to 12th grade have monthly oneon-one academic, college and career guidance, and mentorship during their journey to higher education and beyond.

With your support of our growing mission, we are able to deepen the services in order to meet the evolving needs of our students.

On their behalf, I thank you!

With gratitude,

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THE WOODEN FLOOR

Mission Moment

Class of 2019 Alumnae Wendy Alaniz, heading to UC San Diego in the fall to major in Aerospace Engineering, Alexia Pacheco, attending UC Riverside in the fall to study Computer Engineering, and Cristina Solano, going to Brigham Young University to study Dance gather for a picture at our 7th Step Beyond Annual Breakfast.

The majority of our Class of 2019 will pursue STEAM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math) with six students bound for UCs, four for Cal State Universities, and even one going to Stanford University! It is clear that our outcomes align perfectly with the Orange County Department of Education's goal to foster the 5 Cs of Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Character in order to prepare students for their futures. At The Wooden Floor, we strive to foster a sixth C: Courage. We are focused and intentional about how our student services advance these traits and skill sets to prepare our students for the future workforce. We believe when dance is a catalyst for change, innovation flourishes into courageous life-changing outcomes for the children we serve, which helps move our community forward.

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CO-CREATION LAB The Wooden Floor’s Co-Creation Lab is an artistic collaboration between our students and top choreographers from around the country to strengthen and deepen our teen artistic programming.

Our goal is to reinforce engagement of students through their 10-year journeys and maximize our organization’s lifelong impact. Over the course of three weeks, students worked in collaboration with the acclaimed Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener. In addition to master classes focused on techniques Merce Cunningham pioneered, Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener co-created a new dance with our students. The Wooden Floor was invited to be a part of the prestigious global Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebration.

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SUMMER WORKSHOPS Our elementary-aged students took part in Reading and Learning Workshops for five weeks. Students set themselves up for success in the upcoming school year by diving into science and reading. In associated project-based learning activities, students created their own fossils with clay, fashioned cloud art out of cotton balls, made paper mache globes – and also had a lot of fun.

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THE WOODEN FLOOR

COLLEGE TOURS As part of our College and Career Readiness program’s summer activities, students toured UC San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, Cal State LA, Occidental College, UC Riverside, and UCLA. Cristina Garcia, a third-year nursing student at UCLA and alumna of The Wooden Floor, also gave a personal tour of her college campus.

HEALTH FAIR We held our 8th Annual Family Health Fair for our families to receive free medical/dental/vision screenings, health education materials, and healthy food demonstrations. We thank our partners in health and wellness who helped make the day a success: Serve the People; YWCA of North Orange County; Latino Health Access; and Northgate Markets.

Snapshots of our youth in motion.

Follow us on @TheWoodenFloor

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THE WOODEN FLOOR

In the First Person:

Ian,

Class of 2022 “Dance feels like my gateway to heaven. It satisfies me, and I always feel at peace, like I don’t need anything else in the world.

Co-creating dance takes teamwork and creativity. You have to put your minds together to create something that no one has ever seen before. It is a process of a lot of trial and error. You make movement you’ve never done before, mix them into something new, sometimes you do not like the result, throw stuff out, and that’s the whole point! Dance teaches you to make fresh ideas and to move onward. In life sometimes things can’t always stay the way you like, so you have to learn to adapt.

In the world of dance, you can sometimes hear that you need longer legs, longer arms, or better shaped feet. My teachers at The Wooden Floor taught me that you don’t need that at all. As long as I have the passion and the heart, I can be a professional dancer. The Wooden Floor was my gateway to the world of dance. It opened me to a career I never thought would be for me.

My teachers here have taught me to be confident and to be proud of what I do, because I should be proud of what I love.”

Ian has been a student of The Wooden Floor since he was eight years old. He was accepted into the San Francisco Ballet School Summer Session for 2018 and 2019, as well as the Royal Ballet School Summer Intensive in London in 2019, with the goal of becoming a more well-rounded dancer. Ian attends Orange County School of the Arts for the Classical and Contemporary Dance program and has a 4.0 GPA. He admires his older brother Brandon who graduated from The Wooden Floor and is the first in their family to attend college.

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Together, We Can Serve More.

As you may have heard, The Wooden Floor’s Board of Directors has identified and approved a third location for our organization, within the Depot at Santiago workforce housing community. The approach we are taking to fulfill this vision is to pre-fund 10 years of programmatic operating expenses in order to be prepared to serve these additional students throughout their 10-year journeys with quality programs and the transformational outcomes our community has come to expect–without diminishing service outcomes for our existing student body. Our impact in our community is going to grow even stronger with a larger footprint in Orange County and our goal of three locations in Santa Ana, serving 18 cities, and 600 students and their families by 2022.

At this past Annual Concert, we announced an exciting new commitment to our campaign efforts from a couple who have been supporters of The Wooden Floor’s academic services, college and career readiness, and scholarship programs over the past 15+ years. They wanted to ignite excitement to help ensure we reach our goal for $2 million in endowed scholarship funds, and have graciously committed $500,000 for it to be matched by fellow supporters of The Wooden Floor. This support will ensure our important scholarship awards will continue for many generations of students to come. This means an endowed gift has the potential to have twice the impact, thanks to this generous couple.

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We are humbled and grateful for the outpouring of gifts and multi-year pledges to our Lift Campaign goals of serving more children, deepening our impact in our community, and building upon our endowment.

We emphasize that all gifts of any size make a difference. Please contact our Chief Executive Officer, Dawn S. Reese at 714.541.8314 ext. 136 or visit LiftCampaign.org for more information.

THE WOODEN FLOOR

2018-2019

Board of Directors Arthur Ong,* Chairman Executive Vice President, Deputy General Counsel PIMCO Saar Swartzon,* Vice Chairman Principal Attorney, Cohn & Swartzon, a Professional Law Corporation

13TH ANNUAL

2019 Keep the Promise Sponsors PREMIER SPONSORS Joan & Don Beall Sharon & Terry Hartshorn Ginnie & Rich Hunsaker Janice & John Markley GOLD SPONSORS Yvonne & Damien Jordan Nancy & Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation Judith Posnikoff Mary & Gary Tolar Julie & Justin Wilson S I LV E R S P O N S O R S Carlson & Jayakumar LLP

Adele & Bryan Green Hydraflow - Ayloush Family Jon Lash & Shelly Sandoval

Ginger & Arthur Ong BRONZE

SPONSORS

Theresa & Jonathon Allen Monica & Jim Meacham COPPER SPONSORS Denise & Keith Banning Phillip Doolittle Johnna & Donald Grant Diane Koch & Jeff Randolph Jana Turner

(As of August 1, 2019)

Judith F. Posnikoff, PhD,* Treasurer Managing Director, Martlet Asset Management Company, LLC Epiphany Owen,* Secretary Partner, Best Best & Krieger, LLP Theresa Allen,* Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, First Republic Private Wealth Management Sasha Ayloush, Director of Sales and Marketing, Hydraflow Falon Baltzell, MFA, Artistic Director, The Wooden Floor Joseph Chatelle, Principal, Mercer Michelle Dean,* Community Leader Bryan Green, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones Jehan Jayakumar, Founding Partner, Carlson & Jayakumar, LLP Jeremy Krout, President/CEO, Environmental Planning Development Solutions, Inc. Meg Lehmann, Vice President and Managing Director, Gochnauer Family Foundation Iris Lopez-Guevara, Parent Representative, Community Leader

Catherine M. MacIver, Community Leader Dale A. Merrill, MFA, Dean, College of the Arts, California State University Fullerton Alix Portillo, Alumni Representative, Compliance Analyst, Commercial Bank of California Dawn S. Reese, CFRE, Chief Executive Officer, The Wooden Floor Rossi Staynova, Parent Representative, Community Leader Mary E. Tolar, Vice President and Senior Strategic Program Manager, American Funds/Capital Group Companies, Inc. Ernesto M. Vasquez, FAIA, NCARB, Partner & CEO, SVA Architects, Inc.

BOARD EMERITI Joan Beall, Community Leader Beth A. Burns, Founder of The Wooden Floor and Artistic Director (’83-’05) Sharon Hartshorn, Community Leader Richard C. Hunsaker, President, Hunsaker Management Virginia Hunsaker, Community Leader Damien M. Jordan,* General Manager, Retired, American Funds/ Capital Group Companies, Inc. Yvonne M. Jordan, Community Leader Socorro Vasquez, Community Leader *Executive Committee Members.

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ORANGE COUNTY’S PREMIER WINE TA S T I N G BENEFIT

“The mission and outcomes of The Wooden Floor mean a great deal to me. To have been able to celebrate and share that commitment to these students with my daughter, who now serves as a Board Member, and my granddaughter, at the 36th Annual Concert, was very powerful.”

Richard Gochnauer, President of the Gochnauer Family Foundation, and former Board Member of The Wooden Floor from 1998-2002

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 AT 6:00PM BIG CANYON COUNTRY CLUB NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

From Left: Drs. Constance and Donald Sperling

13TH ANNUAL

Co-Creation Lab Opening Night Reception JULY 18, 2019

▫▫ A fun, strolling blind wine-tasting competition ▫▫ Signature small plates

▫▫ Sharing of student success stories ▫▫ Silent auctions and opportunity drawings ▫▫ Giving opportunities

Sponsorships and individual tickets now on sale

at TheWoodenFloor.org/WineTasting THIS EVENT SELLS OUT EVERY YEAR!

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Supporters were invited to a reception prior to the opening night premiere of a powerful collaboration between The Wooden Floor’s dancers and the acclaimed Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, former company members of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

The event included a captivating Q&A with the choreographers and students.

This year’s Co-Creation Lab was a part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial Celebration, and was made possible in part through support from the Helen Sperry Lea Foundation, and Cath MacIver, & Jim Slaughter.

THE WOODEN FLOOR

Supporter Sightings 36th Annual Concert Opening Night Reception MAY 30, 2019

From Left: Meg Lehmann, Board Member of The Wooden Floor; Spencer Parker; and Richard Gochnauer, former Board Member of The Wooden Floor

Audiences were amazed by the sophisticated and challenging work performed and co-created by our students at our 36th Annual Concert: Of Knowing Where at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Students collaborated with nationally-acclaimed choreographers—David Dorfman, Angie Muzzy, and The Wooden Floor’s Artistic Director Falon Baltzell—to co-create three dance pieces inspired by students knowing where they are coming from, where they are going, and envisioning their future. Long-time supporters gathered at an Opening Night Reception, where CEO Dawn S. Reese reminded them, “Being witnessed by others increases each student’s sense of self and that empowerment stays with them for a lifetime.”

7th Step Beyond Annual Breakfast® MAY 2, 2019 The Wooden Floor celebrated the Class of 2019 with over 200 guests at the 7th Step Beyond Annual Breakfast. The Class of 2019 is our 15th consecutive class to have 100 percent of students graduate high school on time and immediately enroll in college. During this year’s breakfast, The Wooden Floor grossed nearly $480,000 to support College and Career Readiness Programs and college scholarship programs. Advance Beauty College’s President Tam Nguyen, MD, MBA and Vice President Linh Nguyen, MBA shared their personal stories during a keynote panel facilitated by Ed Hart, Center Director of CSUF Center for Family Business, which focused on the obstacles they overcame while growing up as Vietnamese-Americans, and how it positively influenced their decisions in terms of their community involvement and educational pursuits.

From Left, Members of the Sharon D. Lund Foundation: Marie Sackett; Michelle Lund; and Karen Presley

From Left: Advance Beauty College President, Tam Nguyen; Advance Beauty College Vice President, Linh Nguyen; Class of 2019 Student Speaker, Donna Gaytan; The Wooden Floor CEO, Dawn S. Reese; and The Wooden Floor Chairman of the Board of Directors, Arthur Ong

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RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

1810 North Main Street Santa Ana, CA 92706-2727 714.541.8314 TheWoodenFloor.org

PRESORTED FIRST CLASS - MAIL US POSTAGE PAID SANTA ANA, CA PERMIT NO. 949

Come join us!

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

13th Annual Keep the Promise™ Wine Tasting Benefit Sample the world's most exquisite wines. Proceeds help us keep the promise to each of our students: from here, you can step anywhere.

OCTOBER 19, 2019

Annual Auditions Know a child who needs us? Spread the word to our community about the opportunity to join The Wooden Floor.

More information at TheWoodenFloor.org/Auditions.

DECEMBER 9, 2019

Eat & Wrap Join The Wooden Floor as we bring holiday cheer to our 475 students! Enjoy wrapping gifts for each and every child and decorating trees to be sent home with students who would otherwise go without.

More information at TheWoodenFloor.org/Events.

Photography by Christine Cotter and Tony Lattimore. ©2019 The Wooden Floor. DanceUp is a trademark of The Wooden Floor.

More information at TheWoodenFloor.org/WineTasting.