SEQUIM – Looking ahead to a summer of outdoor frolic, Sequim Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois issued a challenge this week to her fellow elected officials.
“Make some donation, at whatever level you can” to the Music & Movies in the Park series, she said at the tail end of Monday night’s City Council meeting.
Dubois added she’d already made a contribution to the fifth annual alfresco concert-and-cinema season, planned for Tuesday nights from June 22 through Sept. 7 at the James Center bandshell next to Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.
“We had a close call last year,” Dubois told the other council members.
In spring 2009, as City Clerk Karen Kuznek-Reese and deputy clerk Bobbie Usselman listened to bands’ audition tapes and pondered which family-friendly films to put on the inflatable outdoor screen, the sponsorships were coming in.
2009 almost fell through
But amid the deepening recession, they weren’t flowing fast enough.
In May, $6,000 short of the $13,000 needed for the full slate, the orchestrators had to cut back the series, from 12 weekly concerts to eight, and from three movies to only one.
Hearing this, Louie Rychlik charged into City Hall and donated the $6,000 on behalf of his business, Louie’s Well Drilling.
He, along with about eight other sponsors, made the three months of concerts and three movies — including “Fly Me to the Moon” in 3-D — happen.
On Monday night, Sequim Mayor Ken Hays answered Dubois’ challenge by saying he too had already pledged a donation to the 2010 Music & Movies series.
His architecture firm is a $400 sponsor, while Dubois and her husband Bob Sheridan, who are retired, contributed $200.
Music & Movies “contributes to the health and welfare of our community,” Hays said.
But the length of this year’s series is still up in the air, Kuznek-Reese indicated in her sponsorship solicitation letter.
The goal is to present 12 weeks of free evening concerts – and the 35-member Air National Guard Band of the Northwest from Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane is already scheduled for June 29.
Movies will light up the outdoor screen on three of those summer nights, provided enough sponsor dollars come in.
Supporters can sponsor a concert for $400 or one of the music-plus-movie nights for $3,000; donations of other amounts are also welcome, according to the city’s letter.
Sponsors’ names will be broadcast at the event and included in promotional fliers and announcements, and those who give $300 or more can display their banners at the park.
So far, Olympic Ambulance and 7 Cedars Casino have signed on for $1,000 each, while Jarmuth Electric and Gray & Osborne have pledged $300 and $400 respectively, Usselman said Wednesday.
Another $9,000 is needed to stage the full 12-week series.
For details about supporting Music & Movies or to inquire about performing, phone City Hall at 360-683-4139.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
