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‘Reach for the Stars’ in 18th Year of Success By Paula Hendrickson
W
hen the historic Coronado Performing Arts Center re-opened in 2001 following an $18.5 million restoration made possible by tireless fundraising efforts of the Friends of the Coronado Foundation (FOC) – one person was missing. Gordon Smith, who served as the FOC’s co-chairman alongside his wife Mary Ann Smith, died three weeks before the re-opening. When pondering ways to honor Gordy’s wish to make Rockford’s crown jewel accessible to the entire community, especially kids, his family decided the best way was to get kids into the theater and spark their imaginations by exposing them to professional, worldclass performances. The Reach for the Stars Project was born, and an endowment fund was established.
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“Reach for the Stars was an idea I thought was appropriate to memorialize Gordy’s often-repeated words to me about the Coronado project: ‘It’s for the kids,’” says Mary Ann Smith, now president emerita of the FOC. The main mission of the Reach for the Stars Project is to get every single fourth-grade student in the Rockford Public School system to one performance during each school year. Beth Howard, FOC’s current executive director, says education specialists recommended fourth-graders for several reasons. “If you have to focus on one age group, it’s a great age. They’ll remember they were there, and it will have the greatest impact. And it’s before they’re ‘too cool for school,’ so it’s hitting a bit of a magic spot,” Howard says. “The number of Rockford Public Schools fourth-grade
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students works out to be almost precisely the number of seats we have at the Coronado.” To date, in 18 consecutive years, more than 32,000 fourth-graders have attended free world-class touring performances at the Coronado. “It’s evolved to be something that’s eagerly anticipated each year, especially by teachers and RPS 205, because it has gained an excellent reputation for quality and for delivering a big WOW factor to 10-year-olds,” Smith says. “I frequently run into 20-somethings
