Middletown News
THE LIBERTY BANK FOUNDATION AWARDS $5,000 GRANT TO ODDFELLOWS’ NEIGHBORHOOD TROUPES
10/21/2009
THE LIBERTY BANK FOUNDATION AWARDS $5,000 GRANT TO ODDFELLOWS’ NEIGHBORHOOD TROUPES
The Liberty Bank Foundation has awarded a $5,000 grant to Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater of Middletown in support of its Neighborhood Troupes. This highly regarded program provides free, weekly, after-school interdisciplinary arts classes for at-risk young people, ages 5-14, in the greater Middletown area. The goal of the Troupes program is to use theater and related arts to help these youngsters grow up to be more successful adults.
Begun in 1988, Oddfellows’ Neighborhood Troupes program brings students to the Playhouse once a week from September to May for arts activities, field trips and fun. Troupes are about learning life skills: interacting with peers and adults in a positive way, building trust and creating safe spaces, encouraging teamwork and setting goals, forming individual and community identities. Each Troupe also plans and carries out a community service project as a way of giving back to the wider community. Troupes are facilitated by an artist/leader and teaching assistants, usually Wesleyan University students. In 09-10, there are 5 Troupes consisting of approximately 70 young people from Maplewood Terrace, Traverse Square , and the North End of Middletown and Chatham Court in Portland .
Oddfellows Playhouse has just begun its 35th season. The Playhouse presents a year-round theater and performing arts program that annually serves over 1,000 central Connecticut youngsters ages 6 to 20. Its programs range from basic acting skills classes and mini- and mainstage productions to the Neighborhood Troupes, Arts Explorers for underserved 7th and 8th graders, a Summer Shakespeare Academy for teens, and the Children’s Circus of Middletown. The Playhouse mission is to promote the growth of young people--in skills, knowledge, and self-confidence--through the performing arts.
Since 1997, the Liberty Bank Foundation has given over $5 million in grants to local nonprofit organizations and helped thousands of children and families who have been educated, mentored, nourished, housed, counseled and provided with health care. The Liberty Bank Foundation also partners with nonprofits, government, businesses, and other funders to identify key needs in our communities and collaborate on solutions.
For more information about Oddfellows Playhouse and its programs, call
(860) 347-6143 or check the website at www.oddfellows.org.
12/22/2009
The Buttonwood Tree
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