Las Positas College Foundation

April 2012
In This Issue
Introduction
Giving and Getting
The Best of the Best Gala
Quick Links
Janet Lockhart
Janet Lockhart
Board of Directors Chair
 

Greetings!

 

We're pleased to bring you our second Las Positas College Foundation e-newsletter for 2012. This quarterly update is designed to keep you connected with the College and the Foundation's shared goal of building a brighter future together. As members of our campus and regional communities, you are vital to our success.

 
Las Positas College serves the entire Tri-Valley region from its campus in Livermore. The College educates students for transfer to four-year universities and colleges and for technical and vocational careers, while also offering life-long learning opportunities for continuous education.

 

The Las Positas College Foundation works to further those goals by developing resources that support the College and, equally important, informing the regional community about the College by promoting its opportunities, resources, and benefits.

"Giving and Getting"
Supporter and Recipient Spotlight

 

MacbethThe Giving and Getting feature has become an especially popular one among our Foundation Newsletter readers. Usually it features a single recipient. This quarter, all of the members of our campus community are potential beneficiaries.

 

Over the years, thousands of Las Positas College students, faculty and staff have enjoyed performances by San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare on Tour. Since 2006, the LPC Foundation has underwritten annual campus visits by talented actors who perform one-hour versions of such plays as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and, most recently, Macbeth.

The scripts include all major plot points and the well-known speeches of each play and feature professional props and Elizabethan-era music.


At the conclusion of the show, the actors answer questions from the students, many of whom report that this is the first time they have seen a Shakespeare play.


The professionally-directed 55-minute show is performed in Shakespeare's original text and, for interested teachers, includes three weeks of one-hour lesson plans designed to prepare students for a better understanding of the plot, themes, character motives, and language found in Shakespeare's writing. The lesson plans are written by the play's director Rebecca J. Ennals, who is renowned for her ability to make Shakespeare accessible to audiences of all levels. 

 
As for continued funding of these amazing performances, "To be or not to be" is no longer the question since the LPC Foundation has earmarked funds for at least another two years of performances by Shakespeare on Tour

 
Before the LPC Foundation was founded in 2003, a dedicated group of faculty and staff members got together to create a fundraising group, aptly called the "Angels for the Performing Arts."

 
In the mid-1990s, dismayed by limited funding, the Angels embarked on a series of fundraising events. They hosted community members at opening night dinners and receptions for drama productions; presented "Pasta Pizazz and Vocal Jazz" at a local winery that included fine Italian food and music by the LPC jazz choir as well as many other clever events.

 

The Angels began the process of Giving by establishing an account at the College to provide student scholarships; to help pay incidental expenses for the speech, drama and music departments; and to bring the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's touring company to campus.

 

The Angels' account was transferred to the LPC Foundation when it began. Some original members of the group retired, while others moved on to other projects, but the Angels' account still exists through the Foundation and still supports the yearly Shakespeare Festival performances.

 

Remaining members of the LPC Angels hope that in this time of severe and disheartening budget crunches, community members will continue to contribute to the Angels' account at the Las Positas College Foundation to support students and programs in the performing arts at LPC.

 

All of the members of the Las Positas College campus community join in saying, thank you Angels!

Best of the Best 2012 Gala

 

2012 Best of the Best Logo 

 

Each year, the LPC Foundation rolls out the red carpet for its elegant fundraising event that showcases the Best of the Best in the College's performing arts and theTri-Valley's gourmet food and fine local wines.    

Now in its ninth year, the Best of the Best Gala will be held on April 28. During the evening, exceptional local civic leaders who are among the Best of the Best in the Tri-Valley will be honored:

 

  • John B. Shirley, D.V.M. - Former Mayor of Livermore, WW II veteran and POW
  • Charlene and Mitch Sigman - Founders, School of Imagination, Dublin
  • Nick Tooliatos, Esq. - Major General, US Army Reserve, Pleasanton

The evening will begin with a sampling of Livermore Valley wines and delicious hors d'oeuvres presented by ten exceptional Tri-Valley restaurants and 12 remarkable local wineries in the elegant Barbara Fracisco Mertes Center for the Arts on the Las Positas College campus.

 

Next, guests will move from the reception to the theater for a Performing Arts Showcase featuring student presentations of dance, vocal, music and interpretive speaking. Presentations also will be made to our BEST of the BEST Community Honorees. The evening is to be capped off with a dessert and champagne celebration of the College and the Honorees.

 

During the evening, guests will have the opportunity to bid on unique items including wine country meals and adventures; high-end lifestyle packages for professional, cultural and sporting events; and even special sessions - such a fencing or wine tastings - with LPC faculty.

 

Best of the Best with Faculty 

 

The goal of the gala is to produce an elegant event that maximizes financial support for our students and our campus community. To this end, the food, wine and auction items are all donated and the on-campus venue is cost-free. Many of the event's support elements, such as lighting, decorations and rentals, are provided at or below cost. Guest tickets are priced at $125 each. The result is a lovely evening with the beneficiaries being the students, staff, faculty and greater community that Las Positas College serves.

 

In the current economic environment of reduced state funding of higher education, this support is critically important to maintaining LPC's success in its ourstanding transfer rate of students to four-year institutions and delivery of high-quality vocational and technical training.

 

Please join us for the Best of the Best gala by registering online at  lpcfoundation.org or by calling (925) 424-1014.

We hope you've found this newsletter informative. As always, please feel free to contact the LPC Foundation at [email protected] or by phone at (925) 424-1010.  

 

Sincerely,

 

Ted Kaye
Las Positas College Foundation