LTAPA celebrates decades of supporting district

Back in the mid-1980s, Cindy Howell, who has directed Lansing High School’s musicals for many years, started what would eventually evolve into the Lansing Theater and Performing Arts Booster Club, better known as LTAPA.

Several decades later, LTAPA continues to help support the district’s students,  teachers and administration in a wide variety of theater and performing arts needs.

LTAPA began with informal fundraising events like ice cream socials and Cookies and Carols, and by the mid-1990s, it became an official, tax-exempt organization. In the years since, its reach has grown exponentially.

“It’s not just Lansing theater or Lansing musical theater; it’s Lansing performing arts — theater and performing arts,” said LTAPA President Denise Robinson. “So, it’s anything from a third-grader who is in chorus and becomes part of ‘The Nutcracker’ to someone learning an instrument for the first time in fourth grade to maybe having a special performance coming in or some kind of class maybe in music theory in high school. We really try to support all of the performing arts.”

The booster club now helps with everything from sponsoring performing arts seniors to buying instruments for students and, as previously covered in Tompkins Weekly, helping financially support the Lansing Musical Theater Club (tinyurl.com/y83f6rwr).

“For instance, there was a child in fourth grade this year that dropped his violin and broke it and was beside [himself],” Robinson said. “And so, the cost of fixing it would have been more than just purchasing a new one. So, the instructor came to us and said, ‘Is there anything you can do?’ So, we said, ‘Yes, we’ll just replace the violin.’”

Whether it’s helping one student or an entire class, Robinson said she’s seen the profound impact LTAPA’s efforts can have.

“We’re important because we’re kind of a support organization, a little bit different than PTSO,” she said. “They’re always out in the forefront, whereas we’re kind of more in the background. We have a very good rapport with all of the music teachers, music directors and so on, English teachers, drama teachers, whoever is part of performing arts. And they know that if they need something, they can come to us and ask for anything.”

As covered in March 2’s Lansing at Large, the pandemic greatly disrupted both the Musical Theater Club and, by extension, LTAPA.

“We found out the third night of ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ during the performance that the county was going to a state of emergency and we wouldn’t be able to have our fourth performance night, which is a big deal because that’s one quarter of our ticket sales,” Robinson said. “And some people said, ‘Don’t worry about refunding it.’ But there were some people that needed their money refunded. And we lost concessions, 50/50 sales, that kind of stuff. And not only that — it was just a huge disappointment for the kids, especially the seniors.”

LTAPA’s funds come from tax-deductible membership fees and donations, concession sales and raffles at theater and music performances, its annual Cookies and Carols event and playbill advertising. As such, when the pandemic halted performances across the board, LTAPA was hit hard.

“[The pandemic] was very quiet,” said LTAPA Treasurer Diane Nangeroni. “[Students] couldn’t sing. They had limited instrumental. Usually, a big fundraiser for us is during the shows where we do concessions and 50/50 raffles. So, for the past two years, our income from those things is sort of nil, I mean, very little. And people are very generous. When we do the 50/50, they know that it’s going to go to a good cause.”

As restrictions began to loosen up across the county, LTAPA was able to bring back some of its fundraising efforts. As Robinson explained, LTAPA’s Cookies and Carols is normally held the first Monday of December annually and is a large source of income for the booster club, but things changed in 2021.

“We were not able to have that in 2020,” she said. “And then in 2021, we did get permission to do a scaled-down fundraiser, and we called that Winter Fest. And it was a different approach. We couldn’t have the amount of kids on stage. We had to make sure people were distanced. So, that was very time consuming, trying to figure out. … That brought in some money, but it was more important to have kids back on stage. … It was a great, great way to kick off December.”

Lansing High School is back to full musical performances with several showings of “Bye Bye Birdie” just last week, but not everything was back to normal.

“We are still not doing concessions because of the concern of people being so close to each other,” Nangeroni said. “Also, they’ve done some stuff in the auditorium. It’s all nice and clean that they really don’t want people eating in there.”

No matter what challenges the pandemic throws their way, LTAPA members remain as dedicated as ever.

“It’s a very high-energy group,” Robinson said. “There’s always something going on. People are super, super committed, who are part of LTAPA, but we don’t have a huge membership. But the people who are part of that membership are super committed. They’re at every event, always willing to help out.”

Robinson said many LTAPA members are parents of Lansing students who have already graduated, like Nangeroni. Nangeroni joined after her older daughter got involved in theater in middle school, she said.

“I got started with learning about LTAPA by doing the shows and meeting the people who were officers in LTAPA,” Nangeroni said. “I joined LTAPA and I started going to the meetings and then became the treasurer. And I’ve been with them I don’t even know how long. After my kids graduated, I continued to stay with LTAPA and continue to help with the shows.”

Going forward, LTAPA has a lot on its agenda for the district. Nangeroni said one of the major things the booster club is hoping to accomplish is to help the district find space to store all of its costumes.

“The space is limited at the schools, and so it’s difficult to find space that meets the criteria for the safety,” she said.

LTAPA is a volunteer organization and is always looking for new members. Become a member by visiting givebutter.com/LTAPA-Membership. To learn more about LTAPA, visit its website at lansingschools.org/ltapa.

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.