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2009-04-22T16:18:52-07:00

Melissa Daniel remembers when Metro Theater Company came to Maple Grove Elementary.“I remember how exciting it was when Metro came to school,” she says. “We all piled into the gym. You could hear a pin drop. I remember thinking, ‘I could do that! I could be that!’ Having those amazing actors so close to me made anything seem possible.”Melissa’s parents exposed her to the arts, but “Lots of other students in my school didn’t have experiences like I did. Maple Grove always had many students on the free lunch program. For those kids, the chance to see professional theater happened only because our principal brought it to us.”Today Melissa Daniel is the new principal of Maple Grove. But Metro hadn’t been there in years. So when a teacher showed her a brochure and asked, “What do you think about bringing them back?” Melissa remembered the flame the arts ignited in her.“That’s what we’re looking for as educators, ways to ignite a flame. If we don’t find ways to make our kids feel connected, they miss out on something much more important than we can provide by just meeting test standards. Theater and the arts help kids make those connections. It’s never too early for kids to think about what they might want to do, what they might want to be.”act3 is about making connections, too. We help people tell their stories and use stories to connect with their audience.Metro was struggling to get donors to see why their work mattered. We helped them uncover the story they could tell about themselves, and use stories, not mission statements, to show their value.In the process, we also helped change the organizational culture. Their managing director recently wrote to us, “Because of our project with act3, I was inspired to begin a new tradition. We now start every staff meeting with ‘story time,’ where we take a few minutes to tell tales from the week.“This week, our office manager told us about the call she took from Melissa Daniel about booking a show. It sounded like a great story, so we followed up to learn more. (Which I might not have done before, either.) Part of what I love about how this unfolded is who brought it to the fore. You don't expect your office manager to deliver you such a powerful story. Clearly her having a forum to do so is why she did. So, I have to thank you again for all that you're doing with us. The mission you are on matters too. If an organization is only as good as its stories, then you've helped us discover that we're sitting on gold mines.” cRsfZgl5mr3QVhacfA8pyY

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2009-05-31T20:10:47-07:00

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Melissa Daniel remembers

2010-02-08T08:42:23-08:00

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