YTN gala brings in $145,000
Published 10:27 am Tuesday, March 24, 2015
The annual gala fundraiser for Youth Theatre Northwest was extremely successful, surpassing organizers’ highest expectations, according to Manny Cawaling, YTN’s director. The event raised $145,000.
“Our annual fundraiser started over a decade ago as small and intimate house parties and has now turned into one of the most anticipated Island events of the year,” Cawaling said.
Nearly 200 supporters attended the event, held at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on March 14. Donors pledged $100,000 to sustain the theater’s programs as it remains in transition at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. An additional $45,000 was also donated that evening that included an anonymous $25,000 that was a complete surprise, he said.
That money was raised to support the creation of a black box theatre in the Parish Hall of Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Mercer Island. This temporary theatre will be YTN’s primary performance space for the interim before moving into the Mercer Island Center for the Arts (MICA).
For situations where a larger space in needed, Cawaling said the group will rent a space such as the SJCC. Special productions are held outside on occasion such as last fall’s production of “Night of the Living Dead” at the Luther Burbank Amphitheater.
MICA is planned for the Bicentennial Park at the corner of S.E. 22nd Street and 77th Avenue S.E.
The theater will present “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” opening April 24 at Emmanuel Church.
