Committee Agrees to Spearhead Fundraising for new High School Auditorium

The Adopt a Seat Committee has unanimously agreed to continue its fundraising role on behalf of a new theatre/auditorium at SOSS now that plans for the replacement of the Frank Venables Auditorium are nearing completion.

Co-chair Martin Cattermole said that the existing committee is “really excited about the preliminary planning. It’s simply going to be a wonderful, state of the art facility and at the same time the proposed design promises to provide lots of flexibility for both the community and the schools.”

Fellow co-chair Ernie Dumais echoed those sentiments predicting “this is something that everyone is going to be proud of and it makes good sense for us to maximize its potential by starting out  with a really well equipped facility.”

Although the plan is not finalized, preliminary cost estimates indicate that the money already raised by the Committee (in excess of $100,000) will go a long way toward fitting out the space with things like sound and lighting equipment, curtains and such. “Since we’re not sure yet about the shortfall, what the committee has agreed to do is lead the next stage in fundraising when the time is appropriate” Dumais continued. In fact, he noted “everyone said it’s a no brainer for us to take this on since we led the initial campaign.”

It’s early days for a final figure to be in hand, explained Cattermole. There are still design changes to be made and the committee needs more than preliminary numbers in order to set a realistic goal.  However, the initial estimate is one that he described as being “very achievable because this has proven to be such a generous community.”

As soon as the dollar figure is in hand and a design sketch is available the Committee will begin the undertaking, likely toward the end of September.

Besides Cattermole and Dumais, committee members include John Echlin, Tara Hovanes, Yvonnne Moore, BritaPark, Catherine Hahn, Joy Venables and Sue Morhun.