JOHNSTON -- Parent Donna Tellier was tired of looking at the safety pins and paper clips holding up the torn auditorium curtain at Johnston High School.
She's in her eighth year teaching tap, jazz, hip-hop and acrobatics to children at Thornton Elementary School. The performing arts program always finishes the year with a show at the high school.
Tellier began it when her own children attended Thornton, but she has stuck with the show even though her children are older now. Tellier also volunteers her choreography skills at the high school.
The children deserved a better curtain, she said, so she decided to do something about it.
"The kids in the dance program work hard trying to perform at their best, and then the [high school] drama club, the same thing," she said. "They're working so hard, and then to have to be represented with that type of background, I didn't think it was fair."
Tellier attends many School Committee meetings, and she hears the board discussing budget concerns and the district's fight with the town for more school financing.
"When I found out there wasn't enough money for even more important things, that's when I decided to take it upon myself and try to raise the money for it," Tellier said.
She came up with a plan that evenutally won the children's support. Last month, the performing arts program held a benefit concert to raise money for the new curtain.
But the fundraiser took a little convincing. Some of the elementary school children questioned why they should hold one for a curtain in the high school, she said.
"And I explained to them that we have to all do this as a community to help out our town," she said.
"And you're going to go to that school someday," she told the children.
Given that reminder, the children all started to brainstorm about how they could raise money, Tellier said.
So far, they've raised $3,449.
Every little bit helped, Tellier said.
They had a couple larger donations -- $300 from one business owner and $100 from a Town Council member who attended the last regular School Committee meeting. But 80 percent of the money came from the sale of $7 tickets for the show, Tellier said.
Last month, the School Committee voted to award a bid for a new $3,995 curtain to a North Providence company, Drapery House.
And Tellier's working to raise the rest of the money -- $546.
She's optimistic, and hopes the new curtain will be hanging before the high school's spring performance, Beauty and the Beast.
Tellier said the success is living proof of what can happen when people work together for something they believe in.
"Look what we did on a small scale for the curtain," she says. "If everybody gets together and works together like that, look what gets accomplished. But when you have friction, things don't get done."
Anyone wishing to donate to the curtain fund can write a check to Thornton Elementary School and note the money is for the high school curtain. Checks can be mailed to Donna Tellier at the school: 4 School St., Johnston, RI 02919.
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JOURNAL PHOTO / BILL MURPHY
Twins Alyssa and Brianna Hedden rehearse a routine last Thursday in the Thornton Elementary School cafeteria.
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