Note: At the Denver Actors Fund, anonymity of aid recipients is presumed and fully protected, unless and until the recipient chooses to have his or her story told.
Financial-aid recipient: Sharon McClaury (formerly Sharon Goetz) has been active in the Colorado theatre community since performing as a teenager at The Original Scene. The mother of three graduated from Machebeuf High School and the University of Northern Colorado. She has been a self-employed costumer and sewer at theatres around the metro area for many years, most recently designing costumes for “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” for the Aurora Fox Arts Center’s summer children’s theatre program, The Little Foxes. Other recent Aurora Fox credits include “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Red Ranger Came Calling.” She has worked for The Avenue, Miners Alley Playhouse, Lake Dillon Theatre Company and more.
Her story: Two days after coming home from the hospital following a routine surgery, Sharon developed a pulmonary embolism and was rushed back to the emergency room. Her second hospital stay lasted seven days, and her recovery has disrupted several upcoming costuming or sewing jobs. She had to give up one costume design job at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, as well as regularly scheduled help for upcoming shows at the Aurora Fox and Town Hall Arts Center. “My monthly income has taken quite a hit,” she said.
How we will help: The Denver Actors Fund has granted Sharon $499 to help bridge her income gap until she can get back to regular work, which she counts on to cover more than half of her family’s household income, as well as a $200 monthly costume storage fee.
How you can help us help Sharon McClaury more: Sharon’s incremental expenses will continue to mount up until she is working again. If you would like to direct a specific donation to Sharon, simply mail checks made out in Sharon McClaurey’s name to Denver Actors Fund, 4594 Osceola St., Denver, CO 80212. Or use this donation link, and in your note, be sure to direct your gift to Sharon McCalury.
A message from Sharon: “There is nothing like standing in your bedroom one minute, and then waking up face-to-face with the floor the next, knowing full well there is a 2 1/2 -year-old in the next room counting on you. Not to mention the others who would come home from school to the inexplicable absence of their mom. When things like this happen, everyone assesses what it will take from their regular monthly income, or add to the regular monthly bills. Probably 70 percent of our household income is my work as a contract laborer, musician, and costume designer. If we aren’t being contracted, we aren’t getting paid. And the DAF has taken that worry off our plates until I am 100 percent ready to work again. I am forever indebted to the DAF for their generosity and for how on top of it they are when it comes to looking out for their own.”
