Only Make Believe in Philadelphia!

Only Make Believe Expands to Philadelphia

We are so proud to announce the expansion of our Multimedia Programming to Seacrest Studios in Philadelphia. The Ryan Seacrest Foundation (RSF) creates these state-of-the-art media studios to allow children in hospitals around the nation to “explore the creative realms of radio, television and new media. RSF’s aim is to contribute positively to the healing process for children and their families during their stay by developing these centers to bring an uplifting spirit to the hospital community.”

Multi-Media Model Expansion

Only Make Believe has been performing our shows on green screen at the Seacrest Studios location in Washington, DC for three years. Since then, we have performed for over 1,800 children through Closed Circuit Television and Live Studio Audience. We felt it only natural to bring this interactive programming to as many Seacrest Studios locations as possible.

A great fit for omb

Starting with Monthly performances, OMB will be traveling to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to perform for their children and families. CHOP has the #1 Pediatrics Center in the country, along with being one of the first Seacrest Studio locations in the nation. Their unique “open air” studio set up allows OMB to perform for a large studio audience as well as all the children watching our programming in this 550 bed facility.

Take a look at images from our first performance!

Holiday Market Performance - 2018

Holiday Market Show in Brookland DC!

Our Holiday Market show was so much fun! Only Make Believe was able to perform one of our most popular shows, Gamers, for an audience of 12 kids!

Performing for the community

The nature of our shows means that we generally aren’t able to invite the general public to see what we do. While we know our work is needed in the hospitals and care facilities we perform, we loved being able to set up our trunk full of costumes and bring joy to the kids right in our local community!

Partnership with Special Olympics

We were also lucky enough to be able to partner with DC Special Olympics to make this show happen. We hope to be able to continue this relationship so that we can bring the joy of theatre to as many kids as possible!

Post-show Volunteering

And of course, we followed-up our performance with an in-office volunteer event. Our show attendees headed across the street to help our Second Saturday volunteers make hats for us to give out at future shows. We love when kids help other kids. They got to see how happy it made them to pick out a costume and now they know that they passed along that joy to another kid.

check out some photos from this fun event!

Dance Through the Decades - Annual Fundraiser

We had a blast at our annual fundraiser. Check out some of our supporters dancing the night away. 

DC-JCC Purim Celebration

We were so happy to partner with the DCJCC for their Purim Carnival! 250 people from 80 families participated in all, including several creative families who supported us by crafting for a cause.  

The Clarice Volunteer Day

A big thank you goes out to some fantastic costume-makers at The Clarice. Thank you for volunteering to make a dozen costumes for children to wear during our interactive performances in hospitals. We know these groovy designs will bring smiles wherever they go!

Learn more about how your organization can get involved and help us bring joy to children in hospitals and care facilities here!

Accenture Strategy Day

A big thank you to Accenture Strategy for creating such fantastic costumes for the children that we serve. Your creativity sets a high bar for our volunteer events in 2018!

Volunteers during a corporate volunteer event

Room Set-up for corporate volunteer event

The room is set and costumes are ready to be made!

MLK Day 2018

Wow! We're still reeling from a great #MLKDAY this Monday! Take a look at this amazing Day of Service we were a part of through Montgomery County Volunteer Center! Almost 70 costume pieces were made for the children we serve in hospitals!

Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington

Do you know of a great nonprofit that would benefit from being featured in our 2018-19 Catalogue? We are searching for the region’s best community based non-profits, those with excellent programming and sound finances#makingadifference in our metropolitan region. Please send them our way. The deadline for applications is February 28th.

Learn more about the application process from one of our best local leaders, Tamela Aldridge, Regional Director of Only Make Believe - Washington, DC, an amazing organization that creates and performs interactive theater for chronically ill and disabled children in hospitals and care facilities. http://bit.ly/2D6lhnW

CFC Charity Fair for 2017

Last CFC Charity Fair for 2017! Thank you CFC and Federal Employees and Contractors for a great charity season! CFC#71165

World Magic Day 2018

Only Make Believe finds joy in bringing the magic of theatre to children! #worldmagicday

Smile It's 2018!

Hope we all go into 2018 with a smile! Happy New Year!

Happy 2018 from OMB D.C.

2017 has been a great year of learning and expansion for us in the DC office. We have doubled our volunteer opportunities, adjusted our performances to cater to schools for children with special needs, and welcomed some amazingly talented new actors to our company. Happy New Year to all of our supporters. We can't wait to continue to make an impact in live of the children we serve in 2018!

Happy Holidays 2017 From OMB DC

As we reflect back on 2017, the staff of Only Make Believe DC would like to thank all of our volunteers and supporters who have made this our most successful year to date! Join us for more volunteer events posted soon, and take a look at your impact below. We could not do this without you!

• We've facilitated 14 different Corporate Costume Collectives with over 300 employees creating over 260 hats
• We've hosted 21 volunteer events at our office with over 270 individual volunteers creating 334 costume give-aways
• We've designed, painted, and primed 3 brand new costume trunks to add to our interactive performances 
• We've facilitated 8 different satellite volunteer opportunities that produced dozens of capes, tunics, hats, and necklaces

Thanks to your help, we've reached a total of 1,580 volunteer hours!  We can not thank you enough for helping us share joy, hope, and laughter to the children who need it most. See you in 2018!

Want to be the first to hear about all our volunteer opportunities? Sign up below!