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North Idaho wins an 'Idol' golden ticket

| October 17, 2018 1:00 AM

You don’t need to be an “American Idol” fan to appreciate just how big a deal the two-day taping of auditions for the upcoming season is for our area. Flashback to 2010 when Julianne Hough and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest became an item and she brought him to Coeur d’Alene to meet her grandparents and frolick in Lake Coeur d’Alene. The pair enjoyed time at the lunch counter at Hudson’s Hamburgers on Sherman Avenue during one visit.

Although the Seacrest/Hough romance ended after a couple of years, I’m thinking that Ryan’s having experienced the beauty of our area played a role in the production team’s decision to select Coeur d’Alene to feature on a major primetime network television show.

What are the odds in mid-October to have perfect blue sky Chamber of Commerce weather during the visit, which took place at the stunning Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course with the floating green and gorgeous lake as a backdrop?

I loved that the Coeur d’Alene High School Marching Band participated in the filming, and even the Big Idaho Potato Tour spent a couple of days in the Lake City — and will no doubt also have some screen time when the auditions are shown on the show.

At the end of the day, television and film production can have a sizable economic impact. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, the motion picture and TV industry contributes approximately $40 billion per year in payments to more than 330,000 local businesses across the country.

Not a bad side hustle for North Idaho.

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It continues to amaze with the sheer number of fundraising events every week of the year. You’d think at some point enthusiasm would wane from the generous and giving community but that’s simply not the case. This past weekend is an example of that.

On Friday evening the sixth annual St. Vincent de Paul fashion show to benefit their seasonal homeless warming centers was standing room only. Bright and early Saturday morning the Hayden Lake Marathon featured runners and volunteers, with several nonprofits benefiting from their volunteer efforts, including Team Hoyt CDA. That morning also included the semi-annual Cowboy Breakfast for the historic preservation of the Old Pleasantview School in Post Falls. Saturday afternoon I attended for the first time an annual tea party event to benefit OnSite4Seniors, a nonprofit that’s meeting the medical, physical, and spiritual needs of home-bound seniors and disabled adults in our community.

On Saturday night Kootenai Environmental Alliance celebrated a decade of sustainable art in the form of wearable art created from “junk” with their Junk2Funk Fashion Show — again filling the Eagles Ballroom with enthusiastic attendees, models and artists.

And as always the community turns out to the betterment of our communities.

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This is the perfect time to remind ourselves to stop and smell the roses or in a more literal sense, look around and enjoy the glorious fall foliage that’s on display.

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This Week’s Highlights:

The Post Falls Lions Haunted House is open Friday and Saturday nights from 7 p.m. to midnight if you dare.

Friday events include Brad Richter and Victor Uzur in concert at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center, 7 p.m. www.thejacklincenter.org.

Aspire Community Theatre opens the run of “42nd Street” on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Kroc Center, continuing through Oct. 28. www.aspirecda.com.

CASA Uncorked, to benefit Court Appointed Special Advocates, Friday at the Hagadone Event Center. www.northidahocasa.org

One week from today, on Oct. 24, Solutions and More is hosting a domestic violence awareness art show at their office, 601 E. Seltice Way in Post Falls from 6-7:30 p.m. 208-691-6812.

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Happy birthday today to Faith Tonna, Laurie Cook, Dana Albanese, Rosemary Fuller and Karen Deering; and Oct. 18 birthdays belong to Arlene Pischner (80!), Keith Erickson, Terry Gurno, Will Wolff, Kevin Clement, Kathy Reid and Lauri Armon. Dan Gookin, Tom Hamilton, Bobbi Koep, Louise Jackson, Linda Chapman and Holly Hall start another trip around the sun on Friday. Oct. 20 is the date Mary Lou Reed, Luke Malek, Mary Willeford, Jodie Krieg, Nick Peacock, Brooke Litalien, Kara Powers and Jerry Lee came into the world. Carly Goodlander, Mike Threadgill, Monika Krapfl and Paul Mikel will put on their party hats on Sunday. Wish Jazmine Brown, Whitney Brown, Dick Brantley, Sara Fetters and Chastin Jaeger a happy birthday on Monday. Our youngest grandson Connor Huft shares an Oct. 23 birthday with Sholeh Patrick, Greg Helbling, Nathan Tull, Holly Hansen, Christopher Adamson, Tim Snyder and Margaret VanLeuven.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kerrithoreson.