Hi, my name is Nicole Carter and I am the founder of Create a Spark Foundation. First of all I want to express my appreciation to you for your willingness to work with us. I can only imagine the personal hit you are taking right now in this current climate and I empathize. I regret that we have had such a lapse in rent and want to get back to being in good standing as soon as possible. We would like to resume our regular payments on August 15th. I ask that you please read the following information to take into consideration in regards to our proposal for handling back rent.

Proposal:

Despite multiple attempts to apply for government relief, we have yet to qualify. My biggest concern in resuming payments is the additional burden of back rent. I would like to propose an outside the box solution and ask you to consider if this would be of any benefit to you. You may or may not be aware that Create a Spark Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization. If you were to “donate” the monetary value of our rent from March-July of roughly $37,500, we could provide documentation for you to use this charitable donation as a tax write-off. If we are able to make this agreement, I feel confident that we can resume making our regular monthly payments as of August 15th. (Please refer to our future forecast)

The goal of this agreement would be to secure viability of Spark and eliminate the uncertainty of the landlord having to secure a new tenant in the current climate.

Covid-19 Response:

In March we were forced to shut down all operations of our business. As a community theater, we are among the list of businesses that had mandated closures. Our organization operates by semester. The forced closures caused us to have to cancel all of our Spring productions and classes. We were reasonably sure we could recover from this as long as we could reopen in the summer for our summer camps but as you know, this did not happen. The public opinion of activities like ours throughout this time has been emotionally charged to say the least. There is a lot of fear around gatherings and people have actually accused other organizations like ours that tried to reopen of not caring if their children die! As an organization that thrives on community, this has been very difficult to navigate while still retaining the trust of the families in our program.

Future Forecast:

We are making plans to reopen on August 24th. Safety protocol will limit our enrollment significantly but we are looking into creative ways to make this work. It is our goal to survive this and come out stronger. This will take some foresight and a bit of short-term sacrifice on our part to earn the trust of our community in this new climate. There are some strong positive indicators that our community will grow significantly during this short-term set back. We plan to offer supplemental programs to an increasing number of families who have decided to homeschool due to uncertainty in the public school system. We already have a strong homeschool program in place and we believe we can meet these needs. In addition, several studios around us have closed their doors and students are reaching out to us to find a place to land.

Intent:

We fully intend to fulfill our lease agreement. In a perfect world, we would absolutely love to expand into the old 24 Hour Fitness dance studio that shares a back wall with us. Expanding into this additional space would help us to maximize our capacity and offer more programs. As soon as safety protocols are lifted and we can resume operation at full capacity, we would really love to discuss this possibility if it is still available.

History and Investment:

In 2015 we started a non profit art school for kids. We were a small group of dedicated individuals who sacrificed our time and built a strong and loyal community. When we outgrew our original model of renting space from other dance companies to house our program, we began looking for a place of our own. At this time, we found your space behind 24 Hour Fitness. You took a big chance on us as a new organization. The community rallied together to build out the space. Witnessing what they were able to accomplish was nothing short of a miracle. We have been able to complete extensive renovations and upgrades to the building including installing two brand new commercial HVAC systems and properly plumbing out both bathrooms. All of these renovations are valuated at upwards of $150,000. Since opening our doors we have doubled our enrollment every year and have continued to build a strong student base. Prior to Covid-19, we were bursting at the seams and would have welcomed the option to expand into any available space. We have never carried a day of debt and have truly been a grassroots organization. We have done this without significant monetary donations of any kind.

Our Mission and Vision:

Our mission is to bring the joy and opportunity of a fine arts education to every child and to empower all to learn, create, and inspire. We teach dance, theatre, art, and music. We also put on several productions throughout the year. We have a large community of little artists who claim Spark as their second home. They live to come through these doors every day and do what they love. Because we believe that access to a fine arts education should not be limited to only those who have the financial means to afford it, we offer tuition scholarships and assistance to about 20% of our students. Spark is a very special place to many.