The CHASE is COMPLETE

Posted by Amanda Farrar on July 14, 2010

Yes! It’s finally over! On Monday night, after weeks of soliciting votes from viewers like you and a last minute voting-rush by a full house at That’s Weird, Grandma, Chase Community Giving finally closed its cyber-voting-booths. 12 hours later, we got the news we’d been hoping for—we had placed in the Top 200, finishing in 139th place with 1,615 votes. And that means two things:

A.) We get $20,000 to help provide the best in arts education to CPS students that we can muster
B.) You all are The Best!

This is especially important to our organization at this time. With $40k of funding decreasing next year and the CPS budget a complete unknown, this grant really gives BOM some much needed budget relief.

We are especially proud to be among the 15 Chicago theaters that have ended in the top 200! Amazing. This was a national competition, and $300,000 of the granted monies will land here in Chicago (click here for information on the Chicago theater Chase race). This is just further proof of the wonderfully supportive theater community that exists here.

We all may have been beat out by the Blind Cats and Sad Bears, but none of us have cute and haggard animals on our side to lure the masses. We did, however, have an amazing team of YOU.

Barrel of Monkeys is truly grateful for your support in helping BOM reach students in the city of Chicago in effective, exciting and, let’s face it, life-changing ways. Your vote will help make one more story, one more play and, at the end of it all, the world a little bit more saved. So, again, a sincere and heartfelt thank you from all of us at BOM to you. Your prize awaits BELOW!

If you haven’t noticed, over the last week, we’ve been using our hard-working company and volunteers to make humiliating and/or hilarious Thank You videos. As part of our Thank You to you, Monkey Friend, we’ve put them all in one, easy-to-find and convenient space. If you like on-the-fly dancing, office-made videos and camels, or at least student-penned stories, you’ll find something below that tickles your fancy. Enjoy them, share them with your friends and use them later as blackmail against the individuals featured—you’ve earned it!

And, one last time—from our staff, company members, volunteers and schools: Thank You for giving us the opportunity to continually nurture the fantastic, silly, awesome and world-saving Barrel of Monkeys.