On March 7th, 2011, Colleen DeWinter and Cathy Healy (pictured standing) visited our Club as guest speakers.
Cathy and Colleen spoke about the fundraising efforts for the Community Theatre at the high school. The fundraising started in December of 2010 when Phyllis Corbett, who is chairing the campaign, called and asked them for help with fundraising for repair or replacement of the curtains, chairs and the AC unit. Cathy is the Secretary, and Colleen is the Treasurer for the committee.
They started with a blitz mail out to all the local businesses and clubs as well as the government requesting support and funding. They submitted a formal request at our meeting for Rotary’s support.
They shared some of their success stories. One contributor, a former teacher at SRHS, donated $3,500 for the purchase of chairs. The chairs were engraved with the names of all of the students from their first class! Support has been “unreal”!!
They have already raised over $62,000 since December ($49,200 in the bank and another $13,400 committed). Robyn Hank Nickerson gave a $1500 cheque for the theatre, and he presented the cheque at the Country Music Show. He bought 15 seats.
Their budget is $210,000, and they are looking for half from donations and the other half from the government.
CJCW is a Silver sponsor with advertising.
EJ Cunningham’s and The Sussex Gospel Hall are both Bronze sponsors.
Mark Muscroft donated three-car cleanings for their silent auction and $600 in cash so he will be recognized as a “Friend of the Theatre.”
Theatre New Brunswick will give their expertise as far as the renovations to the theatre.
District 6 Education NB will issue a tax receipt for any donation over $25.00, and they are also looking after the tendering process.
The deadline for the donations is in mid-April, and they will go ahead with the renovations either way. The more they raise, the better the renovations, but they are not going to hold up the job any longer than they have to because they plan on getting everything done this summer. They have an ongoing silent auction at Sobey’s that will end on March 20th. They also have Air Canada tickets that tickets can be bought for at Scotia Bank.