An overview of Nutcracker on Ice for Sponsors and Advertisers

Our Audience
Our primary audience is families in the St. Louis area. We also draw a large number of Girl Scout troops to our shows. We are the only figure skating production of The Nutcracker in the St. Louis area. One of our goals is to showcase the talent of the St. Louis skaters and recognize their coaches before the St. Louis community. The story itself is very family friendly. We have priced tickets to be affordable for families ($5 through the cast, $7 in advance, $10 at door). We conduct a food drive as part of the event, which is supported by our skaters and promoted through challenges and raffles to the Girl Scout troops and patrons. We more than doubled our food pantry donation to the Webster-Rock Hill Ministries in 2008, donating 45 moving company boxes of food and many additional pre-packaged cases of donated food. We would like to more than double this again in 2009! It is a great way to give back to the community.

Visibility
Local and Media coverage of this event continues to grow each year as over 3000 skating fans attend our 4 shows annually. Our publicity plan includes media appearances (including appearing in the Christmas in St. Louis parade on Thanksgiving, a booth at the Webster Holiday Open House and appearances on local news shows), print coverage, public service announcements and placement on many community calendars.

Participation in our sponsorship program offers exposure to the rapidly growing market of youth sports; this affiliation will enhance your public image and provide opportunities for advertising and publicity. National sponsors for U.S. Figure Skating include Olay, Smucker’s, United Airlines and Hilton Hotels just to name a few. These sponsors know that figure skating is the most watched sport of the Olympics and their audiences and participants are energetic, well-educated, leaders in their communities.

Metro Edge Figure Skating Club of Missouri
The Metro Edge FSC is the organization that produces this event. We ARE a not for profit, 501c3, U.S. Figure Skating Club with membership of over 100 member families from throughout the St. Louis metro and Eastern Illinois communities. The Metro Edge Figure Skating Club’s mission is to provide ways for individual and team figure skaters to achieve excellence in skating and competition, to participate in a team spirit of mutual respect and goodwill and enjoy the time put into attaining their skating goals. We feel producing the Nutcracker plays an important role in fulfilling our mission. These skaters spend hours upon hours perfecting their craft for competitions and tests, but the show provides them the opportunity to entertain and amaze you with their skating ability and talent. Performance in this show is a highlight for all of our skaters as this is when they share their love for the sport and art of figure skating with the community. Their reward will not be a medal or passed level, put will be enthusiastic applause, and they will tell you there is nothing better!

In addition to producing this and other shows, the club hosts an annual competition (Show Me State Games of America) and in 2010 will be hosting the ISI District 9 Championships; sponsors six synchronized skating teams who represent the club and our city throughout the Midwest region in U.S. Figure Skating competitions (two of our teams are ISI National Champions and our 2008-09 Juvenile team was the first team from Missouri to ever qualify for the US Figure Skating Synchronized Skating Nationals); supports individual skaters through training opportunities and scholarships; has implemented a team building program featuring nationally acclaimed sports psychologist, Jason Selk through the support of a grant provided by the St. Louis Sports Commission, provides professional development programs and funding to our coaches; has sponsored the Webster Groves Community Days Family Day Celebration over the 4th of July and supports local and national charities, which has included “Cool Kids” a foundation that supports families with children who are fighting cancer, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, “Push for Pencils” school supply drive (visit www.kidsmartstl.org/push-for-pencils/blog/ for more information) and the Webster-Rock Hill Ministries Food Pantry through our annual Nutcracker Food Drive and by adopting families for Thanksgiving dinner baskets. For additional information on our organization please visit www.metroedgefsc.org.

Director
Charity Whitlock is returning as director for our 5th annual Nutcracker on Ice. She brought this production from Rockford, Illinois where it was conceived and created by her mother. Charity has 10 years of experience both as a cast member and a director of this show in Rockford where it was a well-known successful event! She is excited to share this production with the St. Louis community. Charity recently graduated from St. Louis University, where she is currently pursing her advanced degree in physical therapy.

Producer
Karen Rosemann is returning as producer for the 3rd year. Karen retired from managing a Customer Care Center at Monsanto to spend more time with family and work in a volunteer capacity where needed. She is thrilled to be part of this project and to utilize her professional marketing and management skills to ensure a successful event. Karen has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with emphasis in Marketing from the University of Missouri – Columbia and a Masters in Business Administration from Washington University.

Production Staff
A capable 25-member volunteer staff has been recruited to head up all aspects of the show’s production under Charity & Karen’s direction. We also have professional coaches who choreograp the group numbers.

Challenges / Community Support Needed
We are dedicated to making this a special experience for the skaters who participate and provide an opportunity to all who participate to give back to the community through our food drive. We strive to raise awareness of the event and the food drive to a larger community. Food pantries are in desperate need of donations this time of year and we know we can increase our donation substantially through increased awareness.

We want to continue to keep the show affordable to families so many may enjoy the magic of a show on ice! The costs of doing a show can be daunting; show expenses have run over $15K annually. In addition to ice rental, we must rent lighting and music equipment and purchase materials for costumes and sets. Our volunteers provide over 2000 volunteer hours to execute this show, including all the labor for our costumes and sets, but as you can see the costs are still substantial for a community production. Corporate sponsorships and assistance in marketing the show can increase our income to cover our expenses. Community support will help draw more patrons to our shows, which will enable us to continue to provide an opportunity for families to participate and attend the show at a low cost.

? Questions
e-mail Karen at karenr@metroedgefsc.org