The MEA Invites You to Have a Seat

The Montville Education Foundation has come up with a fresh new fund-raising idea: The group is selling naming rights for the seats in the auditorium at Montville High School.

For $75, you can have a brass plaque installed on the arm of a seat in the auditorium. For $100, you can choose the seat!

The flyer explains that the plaque can “honor your family, acknowledge a teacher, celebrate your business or memorialize a loved one.”

Plaques can have up to three lines, 20 characters per line. “Be as creative and expressive as you care to be!” the flyer says.

MEA President Linda Heller says the group brainstormed to come up with new funding ideas.

“Everyone enjoys theater and the arts,” she said, “and this seemed like a great way to raise funds and promote the performing arts.”

 Montville High School Principal Chad Ellis likes the idea.

“It’s kind of cool,” he said. “I spoke to one of the members of the MEF, and I thought it was kind of a classy idea. A lot of places do bricks. The auditorium is beautiful, and I think it just adds a nice element to what we have. It’s nice. Anything that’s classy, I’m a big fan of.”

And yes, he plans to buy a seat.

The group launched its drive on Friday at “Twelfth Night,” and two seats were sold that night. “They’re going fast,” Heller joked.

Though those two are the only ones to have sold so far, she said there’s a lot of interest in the project.

There are about 500 seats in the auditorium.

To enroll, download and print the form in the photo box accompanying this story and follow the instructions, or visit the Montville Education Foundation’s website, and use your credit card.