International Junior Thespian Troupe #88733

What I love about my husband is that he's always up for a challenge. Another thing, is that he's such a good teacher and such an interactive teacher, that he looks for ways to get his students involved at every opportunity.

Earlier in March of this year, his drama students decided to do a community service project by helping out the SPCA of North Texas. Receiving permission from the SPCA to film on location, the Thespians filmed a video for the animal care group called "“Adopting from the SPCA". The purpose of the video was to make potential families aware of what they can expect when they adopt an animal from the shelter. Fifteen members of the acting troupe, with money granted from the Meadows Foundation, came to our home and our local SPCA to film the video. They were having fun and showing what a great organization the SPCA is. The completed video was formally presented to the SPCA at the Thespian Induction Ceremony at Anton's school in April - and I don't need to tell you how impressed the school administration, the SPCA, and the parents were. This project also had a special place in our hearts, because we are such animal lovers and have adopted all of our pets through shelters, including the SPCA.

Fast forward a few months and last night the SPCA held a Fund Raising event called "Pet Flix 2006". The event is an annual Film Festival of animal lovers from all over submitting short films for the competition. The Panther Players (Anton's kids) promotional video was submitted at the prompting of the SPCA into the Festival. Eleven films were submitted for consideration. Anton and I, and 4 student members of the video cast, and their families attended the Film Festival (as well as some 200 other people). After a short break” (in which the fire alarm was tripped due to someone smoking in the restrooms, clearing the entire theater complex), the judges retired to tabulate their votes.

As we waited for the judges to announce the winners, the SPCA, in need of an impromptu time-filler, asked that Anton and the boys perform a quick improv show. The audience had a great time while the boys “figured out how to get out of a stuck elevator. It was hilarious! I was so amazed how fast they could come up with such funny material - that's what I love about Anton's job. He gets to work with great kids, and you can tell that they totally trust him and had no problem getting up there on the spur of the moment to entertain. It was so great!

The votes came in and in a wonderful surprise that we hadn't anticipated, our own Thespians had won Third Place in the film festival! The film will be shown on the SPCA website (www.spca.org) for getting third place, and the full video will still be shown in its original capacity, as informational material in the lobbies of SPCA centers in Texas.

Above is the picture from last night, and I was so proud of Anton and his students. They were just thrilled to have won such an honor, and Anton was just beaming with pride.

Just had to share!