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SantaCruzSentinel.Com February 12, 2021 | READERS CHOICE | 10 continues on 11... at the Civic Auditorium," says Diane Cypher, SCBT's Artistic Director. They decided to make a film, which became the successful 40-minute "Nutcracker: Clara's Dream." Diane and her colleagues appreciate all who supported SCBT by paying to watch the film and are grateful for "… our loyal customers at SCBT and our training ground The Studio School of Classical Ballet." SCBT offered three ways to view Clara's Dream: 1) screenings at the Boardwalk Drive-In (the first of two showings sold out), 2) streaming it from home, and 3) buying a DVD (they sold close to 300). SCBT gave free streaming access to local shelters, nursing homes and senior residences, "…as we felt they could use some- thing uplifting this holiday season," shares Diane. Making a film was inspired by two things. "The first was an alumna who had just posted a beautiful little film on Instagram featuring another alum- na dancing; she filmed in Santa Cruz locations that were breathtaking back- drops," says Diane. "The second was a communication I had with an alumna who had recently retired from a dance career, moved back to California, and mentioned she was interested in film- making. She asked if there was any- thing she could do to help The Studio/ SCBT. These three alumni, all young amazingly talented women, were our Creative Team through the en- tire process." Most dancers onscreen in Clara's Dream have studied with SCBT for many years. The older, most proficient dancers have trained dili- gently since they were small children. There are three sets of 2 siblings in the movie, and one dancer whose father plays in our orchestra and was also featured on film. The bonds run deep. Many who watched the film took the time to give SCBT lots of posi- tive comments. They enjoyed aspects such as "…the overall creativity, the local backdrops and beauty of Santa Cruz, the dancing, the inclusion of the musicians visually as well as in the soundtrack, and the local businesses as venues." The local businesses highlighted in the film, says Diane, have supported SCBT for many years. "It is a great feeling to be able to give back to them specifically," she says. She hopes peo- ple watched the movie and thought to themselves: "Oh, we should go stay at the Dream Inn for a weekend!" Or, "We should go taste wine at Barget- to." Or "Let's go get cookies at Pacific Cookie Company." biggest Hero Company: Sec- ond Harvest food bank (winner) & pajaro valley loaves & fishes (runner-up) Names of Second Harvest and Loaves & Fishes clients have been changed for confidentiality. Second Harvest food bank When you look at what they ac- complished, it's no wonder Second Harvest earned first place for this cat- egory. "Once the county called for Shelter- In-Place, our community experienced an immediate crisis. Overnight people lost their jobs. For a time, unemploy- ment soared to over 17 percent," says Suzanne Willis, Second Harvest's Chief Development Officer. "Second Harvest was able to quickly schedule large-scale drive through food dis- tributions to help families and indi- viduals directly impacted by the pan- demic." They also had to significantly change their process and they did this successfully. "We shifted our model from a self-selection farmers' market style distribution to everything be- ing pre-bagged and boxed, in order to ...continued from 8 Thank You Santa Cruz County For Voting Paul Riccabona, CPA The BEST Tax Preparer 2019 & 2020 2425 PORTER STREET, SUITE 2 SOQUEL, CA 95073 831-221-0720

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