Centennial Committee

From: Donna Hoskins

Re.: Tempest Productions

The Centennial Celebration for Irving, Texas that climaxed in 2003 was in its planning stages for about 4 years
or more. There were about 9 Committees, including Special Events, Historical Markers, Fund
Raising/Finance, Publications, Arts and Memorabilia, Special Projects and Governmental Affairs. It was
supported and encouraged by the City Council and involved City employees, Civic organizations, and
Schools as well as hundreds of volunteers.

The Education/Schools Committee's task was to help the schools in the city--public, private, parochial and
charter--learn about Irving's history and heritage. As enlisted personnel from two of the public school districts
in the city and they suggested, among a number of projects, that we make videos of Irving's history for 4
different age levels. This sounded exciting and frightening, since neither I nor anyone on my committee had
experience in making educational videos.

Our city's archivist, Jan Hart, recommended that we contact Angela Alexander with Tempest Productions and
discuss our project. That proved to be an invaluable recommendation.

Angie was wonderful to work with--creative, competent, experienced, and delightfully congenial and
cooperative. As we delineated the age level for each video, and worked with the heads of the Social Studies
Departments of two school districts, she proved to be a good listener and skilled in adapting into reality the
requirements for the 4 videos about Irving's history that were needed.

She and her staff created a plan, a budget, scripts, and auditioned local mostly amateur actors, coached and
directed them to create historical videos that entertain and educate--no small accomplishment!

Her staff was dedicated and enthusiastic and came up with creative and fun ways to present Irving's history to
each age level. The finished products drew praise from city and school officials, and are long lasting benefits to
the community. Without Angie and her staff's knowledge and skills, we could never have completed such a
project, and also be very
proud of it.

I highly recommend Tempest Productions, Angela Alexander and her staff.

Sincerely,

Donna Hoskins