Our favorite time of year, the beautiful Christmas holiday season, is quickly approaching, and we are so delighted to be back, center stage, at the historic Thalian Performing Arts Center, surrounded by our friends, families, and all of the magic the season brings!

The Community Foundation of NC East is proud to once again serve as the Producing Sponsor, for the Thalian Community Theatre’s 2022 Holiday Show, A Christmas Story, December 9-18. We absolutely love the opportunity to support Thalian and our exceptional arts community in Wilmington, while bringing together families and friends and regional partners from across eastern North Carolina as well as our great state, to enjoy this fantastic show, A Christmas Story, while also giving back to our North Carolina Veterans this year in such a life changing way!

Our Foundation is honored to serve as the Fiduciary Organization that is helping change and save lives of our North Carolina Veterans by providing HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment) to those suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD! North Carolina Senate Bill 442 has appropriated funds approved by the General Assembly, to provide HBOT Treatment for our Veterans, through partnership with the Extivita Clinic in Raleigh, North Carolina. We know that our NC Veterans are suffering from Traumatic Brain Injuries and PTSD in such high numbers, leading to record suicidal numbers and we are humbled and honored to have these funding resources entrusted to us, to enable our Veterans to receive this treatment and therapy free of charge, to help them recover and restore their quality of life.

Throughout the month of December, as we welcome thousands of our holiday show attendees with 8 sold our performances, we will encourage everyone to join us in our efforts to change and save lives of our Veterans, by making a contribution to our HBOT for Vets program. I can think of no better gift that one can give to others this holiday season, than this gift of helping restore life to our Veterans and helping give them the lives they so richly deserve, after giving their service to our nation!

This year’s performance, A Christmas Story, is based on the motion picture distributed by Warner Brothers and has been such a special holiday season classic for us all, for many years! The incredibly talented cast of this years performance is just another testament to the outstanding work and success of Thalian Community Theatre and all that bring to our arts community and region. It is always an honor to partner with this fine organization and no one we look more forward to working alongside than Susan Habas and the outstanding team at Thalian. I would also like to thank our very special Donor Partners, Regulator Marine, Inc, for their generosity and partnership in helping make this Producing Sponsorship possible.

As we begin to all come together this holiday season, I look forward to having everyone join me and our Community Foundation of NC East Family as we Promote, Enable and Celebrate Philanthropy in Eastern North Carolina, For Good, For Ever!