KADERKA: I owe you

I saw in the obituaries that Suzanne Kaderka passed away on Nov. 30.

Suzanne was the second manager of the Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association, serving from 1992-1997. Suzanne took a chance and hired my company, Handshake Productions, to produce the first Downtown Coeur d’Alene Concert Series in 1992. At that time, there were no concert series in Kootenai County. Twenty-five years later, I am still producing the Downtown Coeur d’Alene Concert Series and it is going strong. Suzanne and the Downtown Concert Series opened many doors for me and helped me to create concert series at Coeur d’Alene City Park and Hayden, which I am still producing, and also concert series in five other locations, which I no longer produce. Other opportunities scheduling music and other entertainment opened for my company because of Suzanne taking a chance on me.

Under Suzanne, many other events were created and/or grew in downtown Coeur d’Alene. There is an excellent article about Suzanne in the obituaries of the Dec. 3 Coeur d’Alene Press. If you get a chance, look it up at cdapress.com. You will be impressed with the great work that Suzanne performed when she was the downtown manager.

Thanks, Suzanne, for all of your work that has helped downtown Coeur d’Alene to grow. And thanks for supporting me 25 years ago.

God Bless You.

CHRIS GUGGEMOS

Coeur d’Alene