The Group Nutcracker and Goals Come True be a part of forces to deliver pleasure to the vacation season and all year long.
Performing yearly since 1992, Group Nutcracker has advanced right into a treasured vacation custom in Northeast Florida. Over 200 native performers are concerned to supply a creative masterpiece that embodies the act of giving in the course of the holidays, whereas bringing the neighborhood collectively in a whimsical, imaginative Christmas celebration of stylish dance and storytelling. In 2005, the Group Nutcracker was launched to the mission of Goals Come True and its affect on kids and households. Collectively, each organizations had a ardour to provide again to the neighborhood they each have been based in and serve. Collectively, the aim has all the time been to boost funds to sponsor the desires of native kids, whereas additionally working collectively to advertise the dedication and laborious work of each organizations. Right here’s how they do it.
Funds raised and donated to Goals Come True by the manufacturing of the Group
Nutcracker’s Annual Nutcracker Ballet (going down December 13 and 14 on the Florida Theatre) are directed 100% towards the desires of native kids battling life-threatening medical circumstances. For some kids, a dream is usually a particular week visiting Disney and all of the central Florida theme parks or a buying spree in New York Metropolis, nevertheless it will also be so simple as a brand new furry buddy. Goals deliver hope and light-weight to households going through a few of their darkest days, and can provide these superb kids the energy to defy the percentages. Since 2005, the Group Nutcracker has raised $435,000 for Goals Come True, and has sponsored 96 desires for native kids battling life-threatening medical circumstances. Goals sponsored by the Group Nutcracker have included journeys to Disney, Hawaii, New York Metropolis, cruises on the excessive seas, buying adventures and a lot extra.
Along with elevating funds for native kids’s desires, the Group Nutcracker additionally supplies a really distinctive expertise for one particular baby every year and to the numerous kids they’ve sponsored. Annually, one particular dreamer will get to take part within the opening act on the Group Nutcracker’s Group Service Evening, which is hosted on the Thursday night of the efficiency week. The Dreamer will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the Florida Theatre and a particular introduction to all of the performers. The perfect second comes when he/she seems on stage to help Herr Stahlbaum with the narration of The Nutcracker Ballet story to the viewers. Within the viewers on the Thursday night Group Service Evening efficiency are lots of of people and households representing charities supported by the Group Nutcracker, together with Goals Come True. A number of dream households impacted by the generosity of the Group Nutcracker get, for gratis to them, the chance to look at the fantastic thing about The Nutcracker Ballet.
Greater than 20 women and men comprise the Group Nutcracker Board of Administrators who help in sustaining the creative integrity and high quality of performances, outreach applications, and academic efforts of the Group Nutcracker. Goals Come True’s Senior Director of Group Service, Andrea Siracusa, hosts the board conferences at Goals Come True to supply steering and assist with numerous actions in selling the success and affect of the manufacturing. Some volunteers from the Group Nutcracker have even volunteered their time completely to Goals Come True. A number of members of the Group Nutcracker Board of Administrators have volunteered at Goals Come True occasions and even embellish for dream events. Performers within the annual manufacturing have additionally discovered time to volunteer their skills to assist kids’s desires. A few of the dancers have participated at school applications linked to Goals Come True.
The affect of the Group Nutcracker has been better than simply fulfilling kids’s desires, however a number of the desires granted have been these of youngsters linked to the Group Nutcracker. In 2022, one of many dream kids sponsored by the Group Nutcracker was really the sister of one of many ballet dancers. With the assist of the Group Nutcracker, Goals Come True was capable of ship Liliana and her household on her Disney Dream in June of 2023. One of many Dreamers was so impressed by the generosity of the Group Nutcracker, their sponsors and dancers, that she (Saddie) determined to host a Toy Drive Dream. Her dream was to gather as many toys as potential throughout Christmas, to make sure all the youngsters serviced by Goals Come True had the possibility to benefit from the vacation. Her toy drive collected greater than 200 toys for native households.
The collaboration between Goals Come True and the Group Nutcracker is targeted on rising the attain and affect in northeast Florida. Because the variety of kids serviced by Goals Come True grows, together with the typical price of a dream, the assist from neighborhood companions just like the Group Nutcracker is crucial in guaranteeing that no eligible baby is denied a dream attributable to monetary shortfalls. However not solely is the collaboration between Goals Come True and the Group Nutcracker serving to to boost funds, it’s also offering native kids and households the chance to provide again by the fantastic thing about dance. Educating kids to provide again has advantages that may assist form their private development, values, and understanding of the world round them.