2020 has been a year. It’s been a year filled with challenges and crises: a pandemic and business shutdowns, devastating smoke and forest fires, and social injustices that by far disproportionally affect our BIPOC communities.

Reflecting on all that happened in 2020, I find myself filled with gratitude and a deep appreciation for our community of circus families, artists, and supporters. 2020 could have been the year that forced SANCA to close.

But that didn’t happen, because of you.

You provided the support SANCA needed to survive a harrowing year. Your trust and love of SANCA stood fast and helped us survive. Overwhelmingly, families in our community donated their tuition back to SANCA and made other gifts of support to help our circus community through the pandemic closures. Thank you.

You joined us online for Circus at Home classes and welcomed us into your homes with all the circus we could bring to you over the Internet, and some of you even shared your home performances with us during our spring Quarantine Cabaret — one of SANCA’s first online shows. Thank you.

So many of you volunteered on short notice to help SANCA as we scrambled to refit our facility with COVID-safety measures and practices. You helped us with the move out of our North Annex so that we could save expenses by optimizing our footprint in a smaller facility. You brought beauty and magic to SANCA with the painting of wonderful new murals to enliven the gym and bring smiles to the faces of our students. Thank you.

When we were granted permission to re-open for Summer Camps and classes, it was your trust in SANCA’s safety measures that made our re-opening a success. Many families were able to take classes and send kids to camps to safely take part in the healthy, creative, confidence-building, and fun circus arts classes that SANCA is known for because of you. Thank you.

Your gifts of support even allowed us to continue scholarships for youth in financial need and commit new resources to a dedicated BIPOC Youth Scholarship that guarantees added support for families that have been historically marginalized. Thank you.

2020 could have been the last year for SANCA, but instead it was a banner year of support. You kept us going through the toughest year of our history, and it’s brought us to the point where we can now see light at the end of the tunnel, with a vaccine on the way. The coming months will still be a challenge, but SANCA will make it through, and it won’t be long before we can be together again in the circus classes and shows we all love so much. And that’s because of you.

Thank you,

Jeff Deveaux

Development Director