‘Into the Blue’ host extols Thea
Dave Hawsey, vice president for marketing and communications at Delta Dental of Arkansas, has been on the board of North Little Rock-based Thea Foundation for three years.
“And I’ve been enjoying every minute of it,” he says.
Not long after Hawsey moved to Arkansas from South Carolina four years ago, a former Delta Dental colleague introduced him to Thea’s co-founder and former executive director Paul Leopoulos.
“After learning about the foundation and its purpose” — especially the foundation’s work to promote the arts in schools — “I automatically fell in love with what they do and asked, ‘Besides giving you money, how can I help?’”
The foundation’s mission was “important and dear to me,” especially considering that two of his
three sons are still in elementary school.
He also praises the foundation staff, who, he says, “live the mission every day.”
Hawsey explains that he grew up in a “really small town” in South Carolina where he cited his involvement in music programs in elementary, middle and high school — he played drums in marching and jazz bands (“much to my mother’s and father’s chagrin”) and sang in the chorus.
“Two teachers — my middle-school band director and my high school chorus conductor — really helped me survive,” he says.
He’s kept up with his drumming — he plays in a band that evolved from some jam sessions with a Delta Dental colleague. “Music is a very big part of my and my family’s life,” he adds.
What excites Hawsey most about being involved with the foundation is its scholarship program. Thea Foundation this year will hand out, via a series of arts-based competitions, three dozen scholarships to Arkansas high school seniors.
“It’s a chance for them to advance in higher education, the opportunity to leverage their talent that’s not based on grades or test scores,” he explains.
The foundation awarded its first scholarship in 2002 and has since given out more than $2.3 million. Last year, the foundation increased the total number of available scholarships from 30 to 36, with student participation from all over the state.
For 2020, the foundation is holding awards scholarship competitions in visual arts, performing arts, slam poetry, creative writing, fashion design and film. Past scholarship winners have gone on to almost every four-year college and many two-year colleges in Arkansas, many of which provide thousands more dollars in matching scholarship money. A couple of 2019 winners have gone on to prominent art schools, including the Savannah College of Art and Design and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
As he did in 2019, Hawsey will serve as the master of ceremonies for the foundation’s 2020 “Into the Blue” event, 6:30 p.m. May 9 at the Center for Humanities & Arts Theater at University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock.
The evening features past Thea scholarship winners and students who’ve benefited from Thea’s Art Closet program, which provides art supplies to schoolteachers around the state and which will be the principal beneficiary of the fundraiser.
Foundation staff confirms the lineup of performers will include singer-poet and former Central High student Jamee McAdoo, who won the foundation’s 2019 Slam Poetry Scholarship Competition, taking home a $4,000 award.
“It’s great to hear the stories of youngsters who have gone on to pursue acting, voice, dance, and to be able to showcase that talent,” Hawsey says.
Hawsey doesn’t think his board service has a time limit — some boards restrict membership to three- or five-year terms — but if the subject arises, “I’ll certainly re-enlist.”