Editorial

New seating would boost auditorium

Friday, April 1, 2005

If you have ever sat through a concert, or barbershop singing show, or cooking school at the McCook Memorial Auditorium, you know how hard those long board bleachers can become. It's not too bad for the first few minutes, but when a show stretches to an hour and a half or more, your backside begins to feel the aching effects of prolonged sitting.

The seating has been that way for years, stretching all the way back to the auditorium's construction during the WPA days of the Great Depression. It makes you wonder: Why haven't we done something about the uncomfortable seating before?

The answer is simple: No one took the initiative. That is, no one did until now.

Coming forward this spring to shake the community out of its lethargy about seating are the co-directors of the Women's Winter Retreat for the Evangelical Free Church. While planning the 2006 concert and retreat, the women found the city auditorium to be the perfect place to host the event, which is expected to attract 800 participants. Perfect, that is, except for the hard seating.

On Saturday, Jan. 21, 2006, the Christian women will be sitting for up to seven hours -- starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until 3:30 or 4 p.m. "That's way too long to sit on those hard boards. We need to do something to make the auditorium seating more comfortable," said Missy Nelson, who is co-director of the Winter Retreat with Roxann Owens and Sharon Burrows.

And so Missy came up with a brainchild. Within the next five months -- starting in late April and lasting until Heritage Days in September -- she wants the commuity to conduct a fund drive to raise $42,000 -- which is the amount needed to install 534 comfortable, cradled, plastic seats on the north, south and east sides of the auditorium. To prepare for the project, Missy and Roxann received approval Friday to establish a fund within the McCook Community Foundation.

As the next step, the women will appear before the McCook City Council to get authorization. She already has the support of the city building inspector, Doyle Wineland, who says, "This project will be a big boost for the auditorium. It will make the auditorium a lot more comfortable, and the result will be that the auditorium will be used more."

Comfortable seating for the auditorium will be a big project and Missy and Roxann will need lots of help with the fund-raising efforts. To lend your support to the project, give Missy a call at 345-7441 in McCook, or phone Roxann at 364-2466 in Indianola. Years of comfortable seating will make the effort worth it ... for you and countless others during the years to come.

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