Children’s Theatre Nears 50th Season

Any anniversary is a special event, but a golden anniversary has such great significance. So much history can be created in 50 years!

From the fall of 1995 to the spring of 1996, Spokane Children’s Theatre will celebrate its 50th season of staging plays.

To commemorate the occasion, a souvenir booklet will be published, and organizers want to contact as many people as possible who have been a part of the theater this past half-century.

Each season, the non-profit, volunteer organization begun by the Junior League of Spokane produces four or five plays for children and their families.

At the end of the current season, Spokane Children’s Theatre group - over the past 49 years - will have produced 171 shows totaling 2,147 performances played to more than 500,000 audience members.

SCT has a scholarship program with recipients selected from the cast and/or crew of each show. Young scholarship winners attend an all-expense theater summer camp, while college students have the money applied to their tuition.

In addition, there is a separate scholarship program for training in technical theater.

Countless volunteers have donated thousands of hours to acting, directing, working behind the scenes, staffing the front of the house and serving as officers or on the board of directors. SCT wants to make contact with as many of these people as it can.

Anyone who has been involved with SCT or who knows of others who were, is asked to contact Carmen K. Farley, N6517 Stevens, Spokane, WA 99208; (509) 467-5383.

15 Sweethearts: Sweethearts from 15 chapters of the Spokane Regional Council’s Annual Valentine Ball will be crowned Saturday.

The event begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. in the Playfair Paddock Room, according to Pay Ewy and Colleen Kassa, co-chairpersons. Dinner follows at 7, with dancing at 9.

While some chapters don’t reveal their valentines until the coronation, Preceptor Alpha has selected Elinor Johnson and Sandee Dieffenbacher as co-sweethearts.

Going, going …: Auctions have long been popular fund-raisers. Sometimes, even though the items up for bid are exciting and desirable, it’s hard to conjure enough enthusiasm to get dressed up and go out.

If that description fits you, then the “Bids for Kids” TV auction Thursday is for you. You can lounge on the davenport in comfortable clothes and still bid on auction items.

Tune to Cox Cable Channel 25 or Cablevision Channel 13 between 7 and 10:30 p.m. and be ready to bid.

The auction will benefit the babies and children at Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery, the Wishing Star Foundation and Alexandria’s House, Crosswalk’s teen-mom home.

On the auction block will be more than 145 packages, including $1,000 in furniture, a trip to Disney World, an autographed tie from David Letterman, a mountain bike, Supersonic tickets….

For complete details, look for the Bids for Kids insert in Saturday’s Spokesman-Review.

Friday Harbor revealed: Esther Reed Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, meets at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Riverview Terrace, E1801 Upriver Drive. Elsie Jamieson is hostess.

Guest speaker will be Kristina Thalacker, recipient of the chapter’s Grace Hallock Pike Scholarship. Thalacker, a junior at Eastern Washington University majoring in government and prelaw, will discuss the historical past of her hometown area, Friday Harbor, Wash.

For reservations or more information about DAR, call Helen Frankart, regent, 283-2528.

Colonial America is focus: Spokane Garry Chapter of the DAR will meet Feb. 14 at Liberty Park United Methodist Church. Augusta Evans and Jean McBurney will be hostesses.

Chapter member Nancy Emery will give a slide show on colonial American sites and other landmarks up to the Revolutionary War.

For further information, call 466-0581.

Lilacs in the offing: Many days during this mild winter have felt like spring, and before we know it, spring will really be here.

Already we’re moving into Lilac Festival time, so you know spring can’t be far behind.

The royalty committee of the Spokane Lilac Festival Association has begun preparations to select the 12 Lilac princesses. The first princess will be chosen Feb. 27 at Gonzaga Prep and the last on March 23 at Shadle Park High School.

Coronation of the Lilac queen will be April 22 at Ferris High School.

Sandi Bentz is vice president of royalty for the Lilac Festival Association, Denise Hamp is chair of princess selection, and Beth Raol is chair for the coronation.

What’s your favorite cookie? The Girl Scout cookie preorder period began Wednesday and will run through Feb. 19. So be prepared for the smiling faces of young peddlers ringing your doorbell.

Proceeds from the annual sale help provide funding for program activities within the council and for individual Girl Scout troops and service units.

Pretty good excuses to eat cookies!

The eight varieties of cookies sell for $3.50 a box.

For more information, call (509) 747-8091.

Girl Scouts had a ball: Five senior Girl Scouts represented the Inland Empire Council at Idaho’s Inaugural Ball recently in Boise.

Those attending were Petra Rogers and Angie Horan, Troop 267 from Lewiston; Charlene Pearce and Rena Van Matre, independent Girl Scouts from Coeur d’Alene; and Rebecca Bailey, Troop 441, Sandpoint. Adult leaders Deborah Pearce and Cheryl Van Matre accompanied the Scouts.

In addition to attending the ball, where they served as guest hostesses for part of the evening, the girls toured the House of Representatives and met with Idaho House Speaker Michael Simpson. They also toured the Idaho Supreme Court.

Transitional tale: “From Disgrace to Amazing Grace” will be the topic of Joe Clark at 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Spokane Room of Gonzaga University’s COG.

Clark is the tough former high school principal depicted in the movie “Lean on Me.”

He became principal of the raucous Eastside High in Paterson, N.J., in 1983. Within two years, Eastside was declared a model school by New Jersey’s governor, and in 1986, Clark was named one of the nation’s 10 Principals of Leadership. He resigned his position in 1990.

Clark was hailed for the discipline and pride he restored to Eastside. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine, profiled on TV’s “60 Minutes,” and named by President Reagan as a model educator.

His talk, sponsored by the Gonzaga Student Body Association, is open to the public. Admission is $2.

For more information, call Tom Lopach, 328-4220, ext. 2238.

Pops for Valentine’s: The Gonzaga University Symphony Orchestra will present its spring Valentine’s Pops Concert of light classical and popular favorites on Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Spokane Room of the COG.

Kevin Hekmatpanah, music director, will be joined by Gonzaga faculty conductor Bob Spittal, soprano Joanne Bouma and guest violinist Tracy Gibson.

Admission is $5. Tickets will be available at the door.

For more information, call 328-4220, ext. 3333.

Cyberspace business: A seminar, “Doing Business in Cyberspace,” will be presented by Regional Information Services and CyberNaut Rest Stop at Gonzaga University’s Foley Center on Feb. 16 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Business-related uses of the Internet, such as customer support and marketing products and services, will be the focus of the nontechnical seminar aimed at business owners and decision-makers.

Cost is $100 and includes course materials, refreshments and a copy of “The Internet Business Book.”

Preregistration is required. Call Regional Information Services, 484-5870.

Drawing class repeated: Cheney Cowles Museum will repeat its popular academic drawing class Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Pauline Haas, a retired Whitworth College art professor, will teach the class in learning to draw by doing likenesses of plaster or bronze busts.

The class, limited to 15, is offered to students from 9 years old to adults. Cost is $3 for non-members and free to museum members.

Preregistration and prepayment are required. Call Judy Grollmus, 456-3932.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Betsy Carosella The Spokesman-Review