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SMARTS program revived
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Less than a year after it was dropped by its primary funding source, SMARTS has reopened with the help of large and small gifts and a full cast of supporters.
SMARTS — Students Motivated by the Arts — is a 15-year-old program that offers education in music, theater, dance, visual and other arts to local children. In May, Youngstown State University announced it no longer would fund the program, forcing SMARTS to either find a new funding partner or fade away.
Becky Keck, executive director of SMARTS, announced at a news conference Tuesday the program resumed Nov. 14.
“SMARTS is more necessary than ever because of the decline of arts education in all school districts,” she said, adding the community’s response made it clear that it wants the after-school program to continue.
More than a dozen grants have been received to keep SMARTS going, said Keck.
“A lot of people have stepped up to the plate with in-kind services and pro bono work during this time of transition [to a community organization],” said Ron Faniro of the SMARTS Circle, an advisory board.
SMARTS is now offering classes at its seven partner schools and programs: Potential Development Program, Easter Seals, ACLD Learning Center and Rich Center for Autism, Youngstown; Robinwood Lane Elementary School, Boardman; Leonard Kirtz School, Austintown; and the preschool inclusion class in the Jackson-Milton School District through the Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
The program has two employees: Keck and Ed Davis, a teacher and trainer.
Part of the group’s effort involves programs for developmentally and behaviorally challenged children and those with physical or cognitive disabilities, such as SMARTS Beats, which Davis teaches. It is an drumming program that fosters learning, confidence and a sense of community in the children.
Davis led a group of a dozen of his students in a drumming demonstration at Potential Development Program on East Indianola Avenue.
Thanks to a $54,054 grant from the Hine Memorial Fund, the SMARTS Beats program has been fully funded for the current academic year. Chrissie Jenkins of the Hine fund, which is part of the Youngstown Foundation, presented an oversized check to SMARTS at the news conference. The Hine fund’s mission is to support programs for disabled children.
SMARTS Beats classes are given free of charge to all seven partner schools and are the lead component in the organization’s resurgence. The classes take place 15 hours per week for the entire school year. They have 120 students in 11 classes at all seven locations.
SMARTS had been located on the second floor of the DeYor Center for the Performing Arts, downtown until the YSU funding cut forced it to leave.
Keck thanked the people and organizations who have lent support: Jet Creative Productions (which rebranded SMARTS with a website and logo); the Legal Creative; the Ohio One Corp.; and Compco Industries and these foundations: The Thomases Family Endowment, the Walter and Caroline Watson Foundation, the Zita and Joseph DiYorio foundation, the Frances Schermer Charitable Trust and Lillian Schermer Charitable Trust, the Sen. Maurice and Florence Lipsher Charitable Fund, the Youngstown Foundation, the Wean Foundation, the Hine Memorial Fund and Youngstown Rotary.
To learn more about SMARTS, go to smartsart-school.org.