Sports, theater team up
For the past 17 years, the Whitefish Theatre Company and Project Whitefish Kids have teamed up to open opportunity's door for youths through sports and the performing arts.
On May 2, eight local restaurants joined forces to raise funds for Project Whitefish. The event was held at Grouse Mountain Lodge and tickets were limited to 200. It's no surprise that the event sold out, given the fabulous food and wonderful wines.
Among the ticket sales and the live and silent auctions, the event netted $38,500, reports Gayle MacLaren, event coordinator. Those donated dollars will go far to giving Whitefish kids a chance to broaden their horizons in the world of dance and theater, and provide a sports complex for them to excel at sports.
In the past year, Project Whitefish has brought to Whitefish students performances by Utah's Repertory Dance Theatre, and Rumba Calzada, an award-winning Latin jazz and salsa band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The Acting Company of New York performed "The Lottery" for Columbia Falls High School students.
Funds were also used for the Whitefish Theatre's Young Actors Program. Through the after-school program, thespians the ages of kindergartners to eighth-graders honed their skills with seven-week class sessions. Their hard work culminated in a staging of "James and the Giant Peach," starring 22 local children with five more overseeing the backstage responsibilities.
Plans for the 2006 season will include at least three outreaches with more professional performers for the Whitefish area schools, continuation of the successful after-school program and a full-scale children's production.
Project Whitefish Kids doesn't limit itself to theatrical aspirations, however. It's also the fundraising arm of the Smith Sports Park and provides funds to operate and maintain the baseball, softball and soccer fields there, in turn offsetting the cost for children to participate on sports teams.
You can support the performing arts in Kalispell next Friday and Saturday by attending one of the Academy of the Performing Arts performances at Flathead High School. Mileah Roberts, 11, one of the 300 performers participating, sent the Inter Lake an e-mail recently to tell us about the show.
Tickets cost $7 and are available on the day of the show at the auditorium box office, in advance at the Academy, 11 Meadowlark Drive, in Evergreen, or call 755-0139. Showtime is 7 p.m. both days.
The Peterson Elementary School student took time to share her enthusiasm about the academy's upcoming show, in which she will be dancing jazz and hip-hop, and performing in a piece with light sticks. She also wanted to let us know that her dance teacher Shoni Jaeger is "the nicest teacher ever."
It's evident that this young dancer has a healthy sense of self-esteem and far-ranging talents, because she added a postscript: "I also won Peterson's Fall Fest 2006 T-shirt drawing where I designed a shirt and my design won. Thank you."