Help Save The Caponis Cannolis Theater
Donation protected
We are humbly asking for your help.
Caponi's Cannolis School of the Arts has been providing Theater Arts experiences for children for the past 15 years in South Lake County, Florida. We have produced hundreds of children's musical theater and choral performances, creating many wonderful memories for both us, our staff, and of course the children and their families. We are grateful for the many children and families that have helped keep our dream alive of providing these experiences for children to help them grow in their confidence, craft, and build long lasting friendships and memories.
This past year our studio was able to take on a larger space so that we could transform it into a black box theater to serve the community. We recently finished building our stage, hanging up curtains, laying carpet, etc. Our next step was to finish building out walls and installing an additional bathroom (which was required by city code), and purchase lighting for our stage so we could do all of our performances in house. We had plans to cover all of these cost with money raised by our spring performances as well as parent nights out and evening concerts for donations. However, since Covid-19, our fundraising efforts were put on hold as we had to cancel our spring show dates until the fall and now we are just trying to keep our studio doors open. Our goal was to make it a place where we could not only have our own performance venue for our students to call home, but also start offering evening activities such as live local musical guests, improv nights, comedians, magicians, and evening activities for the children.
As much as we love our community, we have been mandated to close our doors. These mandated closures we know have been hard for many people. Like all small businesses, the Covid-19 has hit our business hard. Like many schools, these past two months we had to take all of our classes virtually as we are trying to maintain a normal routine for the children. Knowing it wouldn't be the same experience as a live class in a studio, we didn't feel right requiring our students to still pay tuition if they also were suffering financial hardships. As a result, we are currently only able to afford a fraction of our operating expenses, which includes rent. Upon shutdown, the government made promises about grant money and forgivable loans easily available for small businesses to be able to pay bills during the forced shutdown. However, we found this not to be true. We were waiting to see if we would be getting any government money before putting something like this together, but we are currently left with no other choice so we are asking for the help of our community.
The funds that we raise will cover our rent and planned expenses through the end of the summer to help keep our studio doors open. With your kind donation, we will be able to keep our theater home that we have worked so hard to achieve for the past 15 years so we are able to service the children we love so much in our community that call our theater home.
We were going to just quietly close our doors because we know most people are hurting and we feel horrible having to ask for help. But we had a few families out there who mentioned they were willing to help. We are hoping that there just may be a few more, as well, that we have helped impact throughout the years who would like to help in any way. Or perhaps some kind patrons of the arts that know how important groups like ours can be for children that need a theater home. We really feel that together we can get through this, and any support would mean the world to us.
If you are unable to donate, we totally understand! You can help just as much by sharing this link on your social media page (make the settings for the post public so more people can share as well ;). And if you are a past parent of ours, we would love if you would be kind enough to share a testimonial of a favorite memory with our group or what our group has meant to your child. You can do this when you share the link or in the comments on this page. Reading your comments will surely warm our hearts and raise our spirits during this time!
For more information about us, please visit:
www.caponimusic.com
Sincerely,
Jennifer & Angelo Caponi
& Staff
Caponi's Cannolis School of the Arts has been providing Theater Arts experiences for children for the past 15 years in South Lake County, Florida. We have produced hundreds of children's musical theater and choral performances, creating many wonderful memories for both us, our staff, and of course the children and their families. We are grateful for the many children and families that have helped keep our dream alive of providing these experiences for children to help them grow in their confidence, craft, and build long lasting friendships and memories.
This past year our studio was able to take on a larger space so that we could transform it into a black box theater to serve the community. We recently finished building our stage, hanging up curtains, laying carpet, etc. Our next step was to finish building out walls and installing an additional bathroom (which was required by city code), and purchase lighting for our stage so we could do all of our performances in house. We had plans to cover all of these cost with money raised by our spring performances as well as parent nights out and evening concerts for donations. However, since Covid-19, our fundraising efforts were put on hold as we had to cancel our spring show dates until the fall and now we are just trying to keep our studio doors open. Our goal was to make it a place where we could not only have our own performance venue for our students to call home, but also start offering evening activities such as live local musical guests, improv nights, comedians, magicians, and evening activities for the children.
As much as we love our community, we have been mandated to close our doors. These mandated closures we know have been hard for many people. Like all small businesses, the Covid-19 has hit our business hard. Like many schools, these past two months we had to take all of our classes virtually as we are trying to maintain a normal routine for the children. Knowing it wouldn't be the same experience as a live class in a studio, we didn't feel right requiring our students to still pay tuition if they also were suffering financial hardships. As a result, we are currently only able to afford a fraction of our operating expenses, which includes rent. Upon shutdown, the government made promises about grant money and forgivable loans easily available for small businesses to be able to pay bills during the forced shutdown. However, we found this not to be true. We were waiting to see if we would be getting any government money before putting something like this together, but we are currently left with no other choice so we are asking for the help of our community.
The funds that we raise will cover our rent and planned expenses through the end of the summer to help keep our studio doors open. With your kind donation, we will be able to keep our theater home that we have worked so hard to achieve for the past 15 years so we are able to service the children we love so much in our community that call our theater home.
We were going to just quietly close our doors because we know most people are hurting and we feel horrible having to ask for help. But we had a few families out there who mentioned they were willing to help. We are hoping that there just may be a few more, as well, that we have helped impact throughout the years who would like to help in any way. Or perhaps some kind patrons of the arts that know how important groups like ours can be for children that need a theater home. We really feel that together we can get through this, and any support would mean the world to us.
If you are unable to donate, we totally understand! You can help just as much by sharing this link on your social media page (make the settings for the post public so more people can share as well ;). And if you are a past parent of ours, we would love if you would be kind enough to share a testimonial of a favorite memory with our group or what our group has meant to your child. You can do this when you share the link or in the comments on this page. Reading your comments will surely warm our hearts and raise our spirits during this time!
For more information about us, please visit:
www.caponimusic.com
Sincerely,
Jennifer & Angelo Caponi
& Staff
Organizer
Jennifer Caponi
Organizer
Clermont, FL