Academy Third Annual Telethon a Smashing Success

With humor and poise, Academy members and staff demonstrate the best of who we are.

As we continue to pick confetti out of our eyelashes, members, staff, and our board of directors are overwhelmed with gratitude after our third annual live telethon event.  The 90-minute program is a perfect illustration of what it means to be a community. It brought us together in a way that exemplifies what the Clubhouse model is all about.

What can we say about our members? Wow! Vocal collaborators in every sense, members jumped in with both feet, contributing ideas, sharing their personal stories, learning lines, improvising live, laboring over camera angles, editing, and putting themselves out there in front of a worldwide audience. We are extraordinarily proud of our membership for their diligence, their creativity and their sense of humor and fun.

We are grateful for our strong community partners. Executive Director Colleen Thayer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Sarasota/Manatee spent a morning in our studio talking about the strong partnership forged with the Academy. She aptly described our symbiotic relationship and how each agency supports the other. One of our stalwart employment partners, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System was represented by none other than their President and CEO David Verinder. He welcomed our crew into his office and was generous with his time, providing insight into the considerable benefits of partnering with us to hire topnotch employees from the Academy through our Transitional Employment program.

Last and emphatically not least, we are indebted to the Steinwachs Family Foundation for their unwavering support and generosity. It is not hyperbole when we say that we would not be where we are as an agency without them. At the helm, Paul, Sharon, and Jeffery Steinwachs are so much more than benefactors (thought they certainly are that); they have become part of the fabric of our community, spending time with us and understanding our mission at its core.

We would be remiss if we didn’t thank the hundreds of viewers who tuned in to support us. The funds raised from this event will help to ensure that our dynamic programming will continue to thrive.  From the bottom of hearts: thank you!

If you missed it, we’ve got great news! A recording of the Telethon is posted on our website www.AcademySRQ.org/live.