Help Keep the Sun Shining on BOM

Posted by Amanda Farrar on October 4, 2011

School Shows

Barrel of Monkeys has had an amazing week!  We added 13 new ensemble members, received an award for Excellence in Children’s Theatre from the Illinois Theatre Association, and had a stellar show and audience last night! Want to help this week get EVEN BETTER?  You can!  Just by voting online for Barrel of Monkeys’ In-School Programming through Chicago Sun-Times Sun Shine Project!  Each year, the philanthropic arm of the Chicago Sun-Times asks for the community’s input regarding where their funds should go.  If you vote and/or leave a comment on our Sun Shine Project page, it will be considered as the Charity Trust decides what worthy organizations receive a grant.  You must vote THIS WEEK because voting ends on Sunday! 

Here’s how you vote! 

Visit www.chicagosunshineproject.com or click here.
If you haven’t ever logged into the site, it will ask you to create a user name and password (or you can use facebook to sign in).
Go to the Youth Art and Culture section, or just search for Barrel of Monkeys.
Either way, you are looking for Barrel of Monkeys’ In-School Programs! 
Hit the thumbs up button on the left hand side of the page to vote for us, and leave a comment if you’d like!

Just by following these simple steps, you can help children like these continue to benefit from our programming!

There have been some inspiring comments on the page, including one from Kathleen O’Donoghue:

This is an amazing program. I have attended school shows and public performances and in addition to the measurable impact on the students, the intangible benefits are astonishing. I witnessed the pride in the student authors and their peers, the excitement in the audience when the stories are interpreted by the ensemble and to me, perhaps most importantly, the obvious development of the valuing of storytelling. The ability to tell our own stories encourages community, reduces the incidence of objectification of the “other” and encourages us all to see that we are more similar than different. This is the most dynamic program involved in public education today.

We are doing well (not excellent) in the voting, so anything you can do to help get family and friends to vote would be much appreciated!  Our next benchmark goal is 150 votes - can you help us get there?  You’ll help our award-winning theatre driven by the imaginations of children continue!