The Tamaqua Community Arts Center is an integral part of the community. People of all ages come together to learn, grow and perform.

During this chaotic time, the nonprofit is doing whatever it takes to stay connected with everyone.

“For us, it is really about trying to stay connected,” said Leona Rega, Director of the Tamaqua Community Arts Center. “We recognize the major role social media can play in our ability to keep our visitors and patrons engaged. We are a group that thrives on social interaction and creativity. Even those who may not have thought they needed an outlet are expressing how appreciative they are of our posts.”

The Arts Center’s Facebook page is full of various content to stay engaged for different age groups.

For example, last Thursday, Seas of Compassion Yoga did a 50-minute live session to kick off the afternoon. Last Friday, Amy Green and her daughter went on Facebook Live to show a step-by-step process on how to make pudding slime.

“Each day, we hope to expand the ability to keep people positive and make the pain of social distancing less,” Rega said. “Look for more music, art classes, story time for kids and a Zoom-based Shakespeare reading group. It gives us great joy to be able to do something, anything, to keep people participating from home. We have almost 6,000 followers. If they share a post, our reach goes further. People from different states are able to watch and engage.”

The page shares a ton of stories, art and much more.

“For a nonprofit venue like the Tamaqua Community Arts Center, we rely on our program income to keep the doors open and operate. Without it, we find ourselves in jeopardy of surviving when this is all over. We do not receive funding from our local borough, school district, county, state or federal sources. Later this week, we will be sharing and asking each of our donors to give just $20.

“With the new extension of April 30 for closure, we will have a $12,000 deficit. If they did, we could cover half of our lost revenue.”