Dance Up Fall 2014 - The Newsletter of The Wooden Floor

fall 2014

Providing Hope and Opportunity Through Dance, Academic, and Family Programs

danceup NEWS FROM THE WOODEN FLOOR

MELANIE RÍOS GLASER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

In the First Person Aubrey, Class of 2021

There’s a lot of trouble makers at my school, a lot of kids who don’t do what they are supposed to, and get mad at each other. I don’t like all the drama. Here, you dance with the other students, and then you talk to them, and everything is better.

I’m in my own world when I’m dancing, a world where there are no problems. I feel more comfortable here at The Wooden Floor than anywhere else. Here, you are with family that you can dance with, and dancing is good for me, it helps me.

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

PAID

SANTA ANA, CA PERMIT NO. 949

NONPROFIT US POSTAGE

My favorite part of The Wooden Floor is not only the dancing but also the staff, because they help you when you’re in trouble or when you’re having a bad time. The Wooden Floor helps out everybody. Whatever you need, they try to provide it for you.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2014 1810 North Main Street Santa Ana, CA 92706-2727 714.541.8314 www.TheWoodenFloor.org

8th Annual Keep the Promise Wine Tasting Benefit™ Join us at Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach to raise funds for our year-round programs and enjoy twelve exquisite 95+ point wines that have been hand-selected from the finest vineyards across the globe.

Details on the back page.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2014

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014

1st Annual Circle of Gratitude©

Deadline for Holiday Donations

Gather over food, lovingly prepared by the families of The Wooden Floor, to come together as one and kick off the season of gratitude. The event is a part of the parent-led effort to raise funds in support of the youth we serve. $50 per person.

Details on page 2.

Celebrate the season of caring by donating toys or gift cards for our under-served youth ages 8 to 18. Christmas tree donations are welcome and will go home with the most deserving families to brighten up their Holidays. Contact Susie at 714.541.8314 ext. 115 or Susie@TheWoodenFloor.org for details.

Complete information on events featuring the students of The Wooden Floor is available online at www.TheWoodenFloor.org.

Supporter Spotlight

Purposeful Pace There is something incredible about the beginning of each fall term, one of new beginnings for both our current students and new students who will join us through the Annual Auditions Day at The Wooden Floor. There is this heightened sense of excitement and anticipation, as our students continue to move forward.

Everyone remarks when they visit for a tour that the

Amber & Tim Smith

Annual Auditions Day Saturday, October 18, 2014 8:30am to 1:30pm

He and his wife Amber were introduced to The Wooden Floor after being invited to support the Keep the Promise Wine Tasting Benefit™ by the event’s Honorary Co-Chairs Janice and John Markley.

After the Benefit, the Smith’s dedication was immediate. “I love that The Wooden Floor provides a rare multifaceted approach to the families it serves—from college prep to dance education to family services and beyond. They meet immediate needs but also provide long-term strategies for helping families succeed. The approach also has the statistics to prove it’s working,” says Tim.

In October, The Wooden Floor will open its doors for its once-a-year Auditions Day, an event that sees a turnout of nearly 400 students who vie for the limited number of spots made available at the organization each autumn. Youth must be age 8 to 13 on the day of auditions and need to meet only two additional eligibility requirements for enrollment. Since dance is the center of The Wooden Floor’s student transformation, they must demonstrate an innate desire to move, and also come from a family with significant financial need.

Help us spread the word about this opportunity for new students to join our organization.

The Smiths have joined as sponsors of Keep the Promise Wine Tasting Benefit™ for the second year, inviting their own guests to get to know the organization through the spectacular Benefit. “It has been such a blessing for Amber and me to get a glimpse into the work of The Wooden Floor. When I find an organization that is doing amazing work, I want to showcase it to other people who may be inspired to get behind the cause as well.”

For more information on becoming a Sponsor of the Keep the Promise Wine Tasting Benefit™, contact Keegan Bell at 714.541.8314 ext. 140.

2 ©The Wooden Floor | fall 2014

Once they enter the courtyard, their backpacks swing off their shoulders before dance classes begin. They can sit down to share the day’s news with their friends, meet with their tutor or talk to our College Preparatory Coordinator, before heading upstairs to get ready.

Once in the dance studios, they are challenged, and

Know a child who needs us?

“Whenever I devote my time or money to an organization, my world continues to expand and it never fails that I am blown away at the amazing people in our community,” says Tim Smith.

As their love for the organization grew, Tim decided to initiate a unique and generous twist on his personal giving by incorporating it into his business model. His company, The Smith Group, now donates to The Wooden Floor on behalf of his clients at the close of a sale. “Giving back to the community has been ingrained in me since childhood, and it is a core value I have always used in my business practice. Giving allows us to look beyond ourselves and invest in the lives of others.”

energy is palpable when they step onto the campus.

At 3pm each day, the gate opens wide, almost symbolically as welcoming arms to their “second home.” As students enter, they feel safe and secure.

They have a purposeful pace to their steps.

ANNUAL AUDITIONS ARE SPONSORED BY

Interested students and their families may visit www.TheWoodenFloor.org/Auditions or call 714.541.8314 ext. 128 for more information.

GATHER WITH US:

Saturday, November 15, 2014 11:30am at The Wooden Floor Food is something that brings people together. During Thanksgiving, it serves as a symbolic gesture of gratitude that is shared between friends and family. In the Spanish language, the word sobremesa is reserved just for “spending time together at the table during a meal to talk with loved ones.”

In a gesture of thankfulness for the role you play in the lives of our families and they in yours, The Wooden Floor, led by our Parent Leadership Council, will hold its first annual Circle of Gratitude© event. Tied to the organization’s value of community, our students, alumni, their families, and our

supporters join as one to share what they have learned from their own meaningful journeys at The Wooden Floor. This new event will replace our annual Making Spirits Bright Community Holiday Celebration that was held each December, and is in support of our families’ goal to help the organization raise funds for the most important resources entrusted to us—the youth we serve.

Circle of Gratitude© will allow you to enjoy food lovingly prepared by families of The Wooden Floor, to take part in a sobremesa of your own, and to usher in the season of gratitude as we count our many blessings together.

TICKETS are $50 each ($35 tax-deductible) and go on sale October 6 at www.TheWoodenFloor.org/Gratitude For more information, please contact Keegan Bell at 714.541.8314 ext. 140

encouraged. They leave for home with a sense of accomplishment.

If you haven’t been to the campus in a while or would like to learn about how our programs have grown and evolved over the years, I would like to highly encourage you to schedule a visit, and bring a friend with you. One of our strategic plan goals is to increase visibility and awareness about our high-impact outcomes amongst new friends and supporters. Your continued help in spreading the word is essential and we thank you.

Our tagline: From here, you can step anywhere, has become a call to action and sets the purposeful pace for our students and our organization. Join with us in this important step.

The Wooden Floor Newsfeed NOVEMBER 22

Dawn S. Reese Executive Director & Co-CEO The Wooden Floor

The Wooden Floor is selected by the National Guild of Community Arts Education to hold their field day at our campus to learn more about our incredible programs and outcomes as part of the Guild’s national conference.

NOVEMBER 10

Taking The Next Step

New guest choreographer, Faye Driscoll, begins the first of her three residencies at The Wooden Floor. Over the course of the following months she will collaborate with her young cast of students on an original work set to premiere at the 32nd Annual Concert in May 2015.

©

New Web-Based Tool Developed to Aid Our First Generation College Students in Their Transition to Higher Education

Preparing for the transition from high school to college is daunting.

If you are the first in your family to ever go to college, like many students of The Wooden Floor, it makes finding guidance even more of a challenge. To aid first-year college students to successfully transition into their freshman year at college, The Wooden Floor has proudly developed and launched The Next Step©, a new web-based mentoring and education tool.

The website features expansive information on life and study skills, financial planning, physical and mental well-being, as well as internships and business etiquette—all centered upon The Wooden Floor’s values.

The Next Step© was launched to the class of 2014 with much excitement.

Younger students, in grades 9-12, will be taught a web-based curriculum modeled after the website, to help them be the drivers of their own success once they leave The Wooden Floor. This website and new curriculum are just a part of the comprehensive pre-collegiate and college-readiness program, which ties together college scholarships, career planning, and personal well-being to benefit over 150 students currently in The Wooden Floor’s high school to college pipeline.

NOVEMBER 3 New students who auditioned on October 18 excitedly begin the first day of their long-term journey at The Wooden Floor.

SEPTEMBER 29 The Wooden Floor’s popular community engagement program, Dance Free Weeks©, makes its annual venture into the surrounding public school districts. Each fall, nearly 3,000 primarily low-income students are served with free week-long dance workshops, which teachers say boost the students’ self-confidence and provide a welcomed outlet for expression in today’s under-funded school arts programs.

SEPTEMBER 19 A cast of dancers from The Wooden Floor performs in South Coast Repertory’s theatre project, Diálogos, which aims to celebrate the cultural vibrancy of the Santa Ana Latino community in site-specific areas around the City’s Civic Center.

SEPTEMBER 2 To accommodate the increasing number of pre-teens and teens we serve thanks to a growing retention rate, our Fall Session begins with additional dance class times on Saturdays, bringing the total to 56 classes a week. This means smaller class sizes and a higher quality of instruction for each student.

JULY 8 As part of our College Preparatory program, The Wooden Floor’s high school students embark on college campus tours to UCLA, UCSD, and San Diego State University.

JULY 7-AUGUST 4 The Class of 2014 gathers around Artistic Director Melanie Ríos Glaser during one of their final rehearsals together.

Advanced dancers from The Wooden Floor expand on their creativity at the Summer Dance Intensives of the modern dance company Backhausdance, UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, and UCLA.

JULY 20 During a short break between our summer and fall sessions, students head to Thousand Pines Christian Camp and Yosemite Sierra Summer Camp. It provides a welcomed break for youngsters who never leave the urban environment, serves as a place to build upon friendships, grows leadership skills, and is ever more important amidst recent cuts of similar programs in local public schools.

JULY 17 The Summer Learning Workshops and Summer Reading Program for our elementary school students conclude after six weeks of performing scientific experiments, acquiring new math skills, learning new vocabulary, and exploring some great books—all tied to Common Core standards.

JULY 12 The Wooden Floor’s family service program partners with 25 volunteer doctors and nurses from Kids Vision for Life to perform eye exams for hundreds of our students and their families and provide 76 new prescription glasses for free.

Stay up to date!

Follow us www.TheWoodenFloor.org 3

The Wooden Floor Board of Directors 2014-2015 JIM DRISCOLL, CHAIR Community Leader ERNESTO M. VASQUEZ, FAIA, NCARB, IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIR Partner & CEO, SVA Architects, Inc. DAMIEN JORDAN, VICE CHAIR General Manager, Retired, American Funds/Capital Group Companies, Inc.

8TH ANNUAL TM

RICHARD C. HUNSAKER, TREASURER President, Hunsaker Management

WINE TASTING BENEFIT FOR THE WOODEN FLOOR

EPIPHANY OWEN, SECRETARY Partner, Government & Regulatory Law Rutan & Tucker, LLP JOAN BEALL Community Leader MARIA CIRESE Parent Representative Community Leader

+

Thursday, September 25, 2014, at 6:00pm Big Canyon Country Club, Newport Beach, CA

FRANK FOSTER Principal, Residential Strategies, LLC

Join us at what has become Orange County’s premier wine tasting benefit! Enjoy twelve 95+ point exquisite wines, each hand-selected by energetic supporters of The Wooden Floor, Janice and John Markley. Receiving insight from Steve Poe, one of only 219 Master Sommeliers in the world, the Markleys have ensured that the bottles uncorked at each Benefit are rated in the top 1-5 percent of their regions. Raise funds for the forward movement of our community’s under-served youth while giving your taste buds the opportunity to sample the best.

FRANK HALL Vice President Resource Development, Retired, St. Joseph Health SHARON HARTSHORN Community Leader VIRGINIA HUNSAKER Community Leader

The evening's proceeds support our unique dance, academic, college preparatory, and family service programs that have helped 100 percent of our graduates complete high school on time and immediately enroll in college for the 10th consecutive year. Please join us in keeping the promise we make to each of our students: From here, you can step anywhere.

YVONNE M. JORDAN Community Leader JEREMY KROUT President and CEO, Environment Planning Development Solutions, Inc.

SPONSORSHIPS & TICKETS Sponsorships range from $3,000 to $30,000 Individual Tickets $350 ($250 tax-deductible)

DANNY MELITA Community Leader YVONNE R. O’NEILL Certified Public Accountant, O’Neill Financial Management

OPPORTUNITY DRAWING Enter for the chance to win one case of featured wines ($1,300 value) or a $1,000 shopping spree at South Coast Plaza. Tickets: $25/each or five for $100.

ARTHUR ONG Deputy General Counsel Pacific Investment Management Company, LLC LUZ OROZCO Parent Representative Community Leader

Sponsorships, tickets, and complete information is available via: www.TheWoodenFloor.org/Benefit, calling Ishell Linares at 714.541.8314 ext. 124 or the included envelope.

CYRUS PARKER–JEANNETTE Dean of the College of the Arts, California State University, Long Beach JUDITH F. POSNIKOFF, PHD Managing Director, Pacific Alternative Asset Management Co., LLC

THE EVENING • Strolling blind wine tasting competition • Signature, hearty hors d’oeuvres • Sharing of student success stories • Silent auction • Giving opportunities HONORARY CO-CHAIRS Janice & John Markley SPECIAL GUESTS Kerry & Margie Murphy, DuMOL Wines

Cocktail Attire Complimentary Valet Parking

THANK YOU TO OUR 2014 KEEP THE PROMISE SPONSORS

DAWN S. REESE Executive Director and Co-CEO, The Wooden Floor

Premier Joan & Don Beall Janice & John Markley

MELANIE RÍOS GLASER Artistic Director and Co-CEO, The Wooden Floor

Gold Medal Jane & Jim Driscoll

KRISTY SANTIMYER-MELITA Community Leader

Silver Medal Sharon & Terry Hartshorn Ginnie & Rich Hunsaker Yvonne & Damien Jordan Rutan & Tucker, LLP Mary & Gary Tolar Julie & Justin Wilson

JIM SLAUGHTER Attorney at Law, Slaughter & Slaughter, LLP MARY E. TOLAR Vice President and Senior Strategic Program Manager, American Funds/Capital Group Companies, Inc. BARBARA YINGLING Community Leader

Bronze Medal Doreen & Jack Bray Credit Suisse Pat & John Devine The Ezralow Company Frome Family Foundation Newmark Realty Capital, Inc. Trish & John O’Donnell PIMCO Foundation Kathy & Chuck Rosenberger Sayago & Pardon Smith Group Nancy & Geoffrey Stack SVA Architects, Inc. Thompson Family Foundation Nancy & Arn Youngman

WILLIAM YINGLING III Community Leader BETH BURNS, BOARD EMERITA Founder of The Wooden Floor and Artistic Director (’83-’05) SOCORRO VASQUEZ, BOARD EMERITA Community Leader

Photography by: Kevin P. Casey, Christine Cotter, Gar Travis, and Miguel Vasconcellos.

*As of August 21, 2014.

Writing Your Community Memoir

“When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do—well, that’s memoirs.” —Will Rogers Whether or not we choose to write our memoirs, in the end we are all remembered for our acts—for the lives we touch and by the causes we advance. One significant way you can create a lasting legacy at The Wooden Floor is to include a simple provision in your Last Will and Testament:

Thank you to the major supporters who have come forward this fall for the students of The Wooden Floor, including: 4 ©The Wooden Floor | fall 2014

Copper Medal Anaheim Ducks & Honda Center Laurie & Steve Duncan Teri & Alan Hoops Karin Krogius & Scott Mason Newport Beach Magazine Bonnie & Dan Platt Simon Foundation for Education & Housing Union Bank Barbara & Bill Yingling

“I give and bequeath the sum of $___________ [or state a percentage of the residual estate] to The Wooden Floor, EIN#33-0299356, a California nonprofit and section 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization.”

This statement is all it takes to create a perpetual gift that will help to carry on The Wooden Floor’s mission to generations of students to come. To learn more about making a charitable bequest, or to inform us of a gift or provision you’ve already made, please contact Keegan Bell at 714.541.8314 ext. 140 or Keegan@TheWoodenFloor.org.

Draper Family Foundation’s Helping Kids Achieve Program