SCF Year-End Recap

As you have seen, the Sandler Center Foundation (SCF) has been busy this year! Amid changing times, we celebrate today’s victories, hope for tomorrow, and keep dreaming big for the future of the arts in our Coastal Virginia community.

We recently concluded another academic year of our children’s education and outreach programs. SCF’s Leveling the Performing Field (LPF), Sandler On the Road (OTR) and the Virtual Academy saw an exciting year of engagement.

We need your help, though! You can fuel passion and culture for the arts in our community by becoming a monthly donor. As much progress as we’ve made this year, we want to continue supporting children’s education for years to come.

What Your Gift Does:

SCF strives to improve children's literacy and learning while connecting communities in need through the performing arts. But these aren’t just words– we need your help. We are putting our mission into action, and it’s people like you who make these types of opportunities for our Coastal Virginia community possible.

If you’ve seen our updates over the last few weeks, then you know we are making a difference throughout the year. If you missed them, CLICK HERE to read our blogs. But, we know everyone is strapped for time, so here’s a recap to get you up to speed...

Leveling the Performing Field:

• We served nearly 100 students at four Title I schools in Virginia Beach as they learned the foundations of ballet from professional instructors. SCF provided them with all the tools needed to be successful and sent them to the Sandler Center for a live performance of Ballet Virginia’s The Nutcracker. One student dancer was accepted into Old Donation’s Gifted Dance Program – and this was just the inaugural year of the program! Spoiler alert: Virginia Beach City Public Schools has asked us to EXPAND this program dramatically (pun intended)!

On the Road:

• Education-oriented performances of Cinderella were brought into 16 Virginia Beach Public schools, including 13 Title I schools. In collaboration with Richmond Ballet, the demonstrations impacted almost 4,000 students in kindergarten-5th grade. Students were engaged afterward with activity guides as part of the program’s SOL-alignment. Virginia SOLs, or standards of learning, set the minimum expectations for student learning and achievement, measuring a student’s success in various subjects taught in grades 3-12. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements as to how OTR is expanding into new communities throughout Virginia in Fall 2025 thanks to the Howard W. & Katherine L. Gwaltney Foundation. We also have an exciting new partnership opportunity with a HUGE collaborator that will bring back an old program and then expand it far and wide! Details to follow.

Virtual Academy:

• Speaking of SOL-alignment, we offered nearly two dozen arts-focused learning programs with accompanying study guides suitable for Virginia and/or national standards of learning – meaning our programs help with children’s literacy and social and emotional learning. We partnered with performing arts organizations to use the power and uniqueness of storytelling as a tool for educators to reinforce SOL-aligned topics including bullying prevention, STEM, literacy, social emotional learning, history, and more. We reached over 5,000 kids which brings our footprint to almost 55,000 served since the program began in 2021. This program will expand beginning in Fall 2025 due to overwhelming demand.
  

100% of your monthly gift goes directly to supporting these impactful initiatives to help children using the performing arts as a teaching tool. Specifically, that means your dollars help children pursue careers in the arts, reinforce difficult learning concepts in creative ways, and help to improve literacy levels – and more.