Thank You and Happy New Year!

What A Year!

A year ago at this time I was in rehearsals for Mozart's The Magic Flute. I had no idea at that time that this year would turn out the way it did. And now it's drawing to a close. Looking back, it's still hard to believe that all of this has happened in just one year.

I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of folks for making this possible.

Thank you Nan Nall and Lise Messier of Opera Theatre of Weston, my vocal coaches and Producers of "The Magic Flute; Paul Opel, Kent Baker and Gary Schmidt, my pianists - 32 performances of Give My Regards To Broadway since we started, in Vermont, New York, Massachussets, and New Hampshire. Thank you to all our gracious hosts for having us.

Rip Jackson, Mitch Rosengarten and Diane Chart of Grace Congregational Church in Rutland for the opportunity you gave me to perform in Miss Saigon; and all the cast and crew. What an amazing and emotional experience that was.

Thank you Katie Gartner and Manchester Music Festival for the opportunity to sing with you this summer. Suprises are such fun!

Bernadette Robins and all the folks of Dancing With The Rutland Stars, and especially my dance partner, Nicole Fabian; thank you for giving me the opportunity to dance! What a joyful time we all had.

Thank you Kristi Segura, Jim Raposa, Ashley Hensel-Browning, and Erica Schmidt for all the dance lessons. What a joy to be dancing again.

My sincere thanks to The Vermont LakeMonsters, Tri-City ValleyCats, Pittsfield Colonials, Lowell Spinners, and University of Vermont Catamounts for the opportunity to sing The Star Spangled Banner. I am deeply honored.

My sincere thanks to my Board of Directors for believing in me and believing in my vision. I simply could not do this without you.

Jayne West, I cannot thank you enough for your incredible work on the Music For Mankind® website, your help with all of these emails, your friendship and support. You are a gem!

My deepest gratitude, however, goes to those of you, friends, family, and folks I've never met, who have so generously contributed to this cause.

I still remember standing in that stone hut in the mountains of northwestern Nicaragua in 2008, handing simple bowls of food to children who walk eight miles every day up and down mountainous, dirt roads just to go to school and receive what, for many of them is the only food they will eat all day; that simple look of gratitude in their eyes will stay with me all of my life. It brought tears to my eyes. It's because of you who contribute that make this possible to continue yet one more day. I so wish you could stand in that hut with me and see that look.

I feel as though this year has been a big stepping stone. I'm not completely sure where it's going. I have some glimpses. We'll see. But it has been absolutely amazing.

Thank you, with all of my heart, for all that each of you have done with me this year. Here's to 2012! May it bring happiness, peace and prosperity to all of you.

Best and warmest wishes to all,