Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
ROWS OF donated items by area businesses line tables at the Memorial Building in Ironwood. The local area movers and shakers bought nearly 300 tickets to keep the theatre going and bringing talent to the area.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood - "The Historic Ironwood Theatre is very important to local business and is crucial for a community to have a cultural place like the HIT," are the words Tom Williams, theatre board president, used to describe the importance of the HIT to Ironwood.
"The theatre is an anchor point in the downtown area. For businesses looking to open or move to Ironwood, the presence of the HIT is key to getting them to Ironwood," said Williams. So, for four years in a row the theatre has held a fundraiser to generate money for its operational budget.
The first two years, the fundraiser was held in the Ironwood Township Hall. They had about 100 people attend and it was a success. Last year they moved to the Memorial Building and this year, the second year in the Memorial Building, almost 300 advance tickets were sold.
The plan and hope was the fundraiser would bring in anywhere from $10-12,000, which is the theatre's primary funding event and a significant portion of its annual budget for the fiscal year, according to Candy Pogliano, fundraising co-chair with Leanne Garske.
"The fundraiser takes a lot of hours and a lot of walking," but the tables were full of local area merchant donated items for bidding, said Williams. Williams realized how important the theatre was to Ironwood when he was an original member of the board formed in the 1980s to revitalize the theatre.
"People who think there is nothing to do in Ironwood, need to get out of the house more," Williams said.
Bruce Greenhill, managing director, said he "was thankful for the bright collection of pieces and thankful for the large assortment of businesses that donated to support the theatre." Greenhill said they have some spectacular things planned for the near future, to include:
-March 13 Lichael Londra and Celtic Fire are coming to the theatre and a local school choir will also be part of the show.
-April Fool's Day the theatre is showing two silent movies with Andrew Roger, staff organist at the Michigan Theater, coming to Ironwood to play the scores from Fenton where he lives. The movies are Mel Brooks "Silent Movie and "High and Dizzy," a Hal Roach presentation.
As Tom Williams pointed out, "People recognize the importance of theatre to the community," which is evident in the growth of the fundraising event in the past four years.
