Join WQED Multimedia and Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania for the January Community Cinema* screening of For Once in My Life. The documentary is an infectious, expectation-defying look at the inspiring Spirit of Goodwill band, a unique assembly of singers and musicians, all with a wide range of mental and physical challenges, who share an uncanny gift for music, joy, and friendship. The film follows the band, made up of workers at the Goodwill Industries center in Miami, as their determination, talent, and dedication takes them from the rehearsal room to the concert stage.

Watch the trailer here. 

Screening begins at 6:30 p.m. with expert discussion panel immediately following.

Discussion panelists will be:  

Kirsten Ervin, Day Treatment Therapist at Milestone Inc. and former Gallery Curator at Everyone an Artist

Stefanie Sigrist, Day Treatment Therapist and Art Therapist at Milestone Inc.

Michael J. Smith, President and CEO of Goodwill Southwestern Pennsylvania

Kristy Trautmann, Executive Director of the FISA Foundation

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited   

Free parking is available in the Carnegie Mellon parking lot located at Forbes and Morewood Avenues (after 5 p.m.)

 * Debuting in October 2010 and running through June 2011, Pittsburgh's Community Cinema at WQED is a FREE monthly documentary screening series on topics important to our community, region, and world. The program provides an opportunity to view films from the award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, prior to their release on television. Each monthly screening will feature a guest discussion panel comprised of educators, stakeholders, film scholars, and members of our community who will explore the film's themes in greater depth.

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WQED Pittsburgh, honored with the 2007 and 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Award for Station Excellence, was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster.  The people of WQED create, produce and distribute quality programs, products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within their community and around the world.  WQED Pittsburgh is one of the first broadcasters in the country to be fully high-definition (HD) in its studio and field production capabilities.  It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED: The Create Channel; WQEX-TV (A ShopNBC affiliate);  Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org); and The WQED Education Department. 

About Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania (www.goodwillswpa.org)

Established in 1919, Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania is a diversified human services agency that is supported, in part, by its network of retail stores and other nonprofit businesses. Its mission is to help people improve their quality of life through work and related services.

Goodwill SWPA provides a broad array of employment-related education and workforce development programs and services for people with physical and mental disabilities. Under a franchise-like agreement with Goodwill Industries International, it serves eight counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and nine counties in north central West Virginia.

The agency also manages several affiliate units and special-purpose entities, including Goodwill of Fayette County; Goodwill of North Central West Virginia; Goodwill Commercial Services, Inc.; and Goodwill Housing, Inc. Goodwill SWPA currently operates 27 retail stores and will expand that number to 30 stores by mid-2011. With over 1,000 employees and annual revenues of more than $40 million, Goodwill SWPA ranks among the largest of the 165 Goodwill organizations in the U.S. and Canada.