AUBURN – Diane Landry doesn’t have any kids in Webster Intermediate School. She doesn’t work there, she isn’t a member of the Parent Teacher Organization and she doesn’t even live in the area.
But this week, Landry will take all 275 students and staff members to the theater.
Completely on her.
“I think when you make money you should do things that are nice,” she said.
Landry, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker Millett Realty, learned months ago that the school’s PTO desperately wanted to take students to see “The Beanstalk Variations” at the Public Theatre in Lewiston.
The play, about a man who fears giants, has been hailed for its songs, humor and hand-carved puppets. The theater offered to provide study guides so teachers could link the field trip to learning standards in their classrooms.
“It’s important because not all of the kids get to do this on their own,” said Jane Clavet, PTO treasurer. “A lot of them don’t have these opportunities.”
Tickets would cost $1,200 for the students, and the PTO usually raises $1,000 for the entire school year.
“This was not in our budget,” Clavet said. “There were other priorities we had in our budget that we needed to fund.”
Clavet told her friend, Landry, about the situation. Landry couldn’t understand how the PTO expected to make do with bake sales and garage sale fund-raisers. In her corporate world, she said, businesses get money from investors and sponsors.
She decided to become Webster’s sponsor for the play.
Landry paid for a bus and bought tickets for every fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grader and their teachers. It cost her $1,650.
“That’d be a lot of cookies in a bake sale,” she said.
The gift surprised the PTO. But Landry, who also helps the local Heart Walk and donates money to single mothers, said she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“Those kids do nothing. They don’t have money for field trips. It’s sad,” Landry said. “When I was a kid we went on field trips all the time.”
For her $1,650, Landry will get to go on this field trip, too. She’ll ride the bus and attend Thursday’s play with the school.
“When I find a cause, I throw myself into it,” she said.
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