Our faire gentleman

You can do anything if you set your mind to it.

Thanks to Dave Eubanks, we know you can do anything if you set your heart to it, as well.

Mr. Eubanks, as he is lovingly known to the generations of students who have looked up to him for four decades, was the driving force and inspiration behind the first Multicultural Faire at Lakes Magnet Middle School.

And tucked into that sentence is the key word for today: Inspiration.

Eubanks, you might recall, received a heart transplant on Feb. 1, 2007. The operation required a medical team of 32 people working seven hours. How successful was it?

"I tell people I'm 60 years old and one year new," Eubanks told Press reporter Maureen Dolan on the first anniversary of receiving his new heart. "I feel like I'm in my 40s."

And he's acting like it, too. Anybody who has seen him work out at Peak Fitness will attest that he'd put most 40-year-old men to shame. And Eubanks was nothing but raw energy leading up to and during the Multicultural Faire on May 22.

By his own admission, the fair featured a glitch or two, including a stubborn sound system that Lakes Principal Chris Hammons managed to overcome. But the event drew hundreds of delighted people and inspired a great many of them.

We have come to expect Dave Eubanks to surpass expectations. In this inaugural edition of the fair, he managed to do it anyway by featuring everything from a guitar-weilding yodeler to an amazing group of young tribal drummers from Sorensen Magnet School for the Arts and Humanities while vendors shared a splendid assortment of foods and crafts.

"There were plenty of smiles to go around and, I think, a tangible sense of human connectedness in the air," Eubanks said.

We're eager for the second go-round late next spring, which is expected to expand and include cultural groups and performers from North Idaho College, Gonzaga and the University of Idaho.

And who knows? With Eubanks at the helm, someday the Multicultural Faire could outgrow Lakes and become a street festival downtown, in the heart of Coeur d'Alene. What a fitting legacy that would be for a man with an amazing heart.