Play sports to support the arts

Sports are in the air, and on the stage.

The Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre will join forces with the Sunrise Rotary once again to create an evening of dinner, games and entertainment at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn on Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m.

“The past couple of years we had a Great Gatsby theme for this event, which was a lot of fun. This year, we want to welcome all of our patrons and sports fans by hosting a sports party. We will have a game room with lots of choices, and people can wear their favorite sports attire. We will have ping pong, foosball, basketball, putting green, Wii sports, and more,” said Tracey Vaughan, Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre’s executive director.

The event supports the theater and rotary with some specific causes at the forefront. The Sunrise Rotary will be donating funds to Matt’s Place, a local organization that supports those with ALS. Founder Matt Wild will be speaking during the presentation portion of the evening. Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre will use some of the evening’s proceeds to support youth education in the arts through camp scholarships and historical plays toured to schools.

“Matt’s Place is really an amazing cause; we are so pleased the rotary chose to support that organization this year. We are also really excited to boost our scholarships for our summer theater camps,” Vaughan said. “This year, over half of our attendees were children on scholarships, so there is definitely a need in our community for support in arts education.”

Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre Artistic director Jadd Davis said CST is committed to education through theater, offering CST on the Road “edutainment-style” school tours in addition to the summer camps.

“CST employs professional theatrical artists to conduct all elements of our education programs to ensure students are reached in the most artistically viable manner possible. Put simply, for every dollar spent, one student is reached with our CST program,” Davis said.