ARLINGTON — Linda Byrnes calls it the most amazing community effort she’s seen.
It seemed everyone pitched in. There were sponsored concerts, cocktail hours, pavers and seats for sale, and fundraisers by school groups. The boys tennis team sold Mariners tickets, the band boosters made wreaths and the art class hosted cow pie bingo.
A group of volunteers had set their sights on raising $2.5 million to finish the performing arts center, in total a $6.5 million project, at Arlington High School. Fifteen years ago, it was a daunting task in a district that had just, finally, managed to pass a bond for a new high school after years of trying and failing.
A separate bond to build the arts center failed. If it was going to get done, someone needed to raise the money. Volunteers from the bond committee insisted they were up for the task. A few people, including then-Superintendent Byrnes, thought they were crazy.
This weekend, the Byrnes Performing Arts Center celebrates 10 years of music, theater, art and education. It opened in May 2007 with a four-day extravaganza that marked the end of a five-year fundraising effort. On Saturday, a free celebration is planned that includes samples of the types of acts that have appeared there over the years, backstage tours, drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and a concert by The Coats.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years, said Cindy Huleatt, who co-chaired the bond committee and later managed the center.
“This is really a celebration of what this community did,” she said. “We wanted people to feel that not only did the school district own it, the community owns it.”
Byrnes fondly recalls the creative fundraisers people planned. Some were formal evenings, with crowds dressed in their finest to listen to visiting performers. Others were casual, such as the cow pie bingo. People gathered around a field marked with grid lines to see if the bovine in question would win them a prize by leaving a cow pie on the numbered square that matched their ticket.
She said a decade hasn’t been long enough for her to get used to seeing her name on the center. The volunteers and school board surprised her by naming the venue after her, changing the sign while she was in opening night performances.
The district had been aiming to build a new high school for a couple of decades when Byrnes became superintendent in 1996. The school board and bond committee under her leadership decided to try again. Tax measures failed repeatedly before a bond went through in 2000.
In 2001, when the district went out to bid for construction, the staff and school board found that the market had shifted in their favor. They added athletic fields and courts, and decided to look at whether they could build a performing arts center while prices were low. Thanks to timber land the district can harvest and sell for capital projects, they were able to build the shell of an arts center. It had a concrete slab where the stage should be and no seats.
That’s when fundraising started. The committee rallied support from businesses, parent groups, students and other volunteers. There were weekly meetings at 7:30 a.m., a roll-out of the “Arts Alive!” campaign during the Fourth of July parade, and offers to place seats and paving stones in honor of donors.
The team adopted a Walt Disney motto: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
“And it just kept happening,” Huleatt said.
The center is a place for shows of all varieties. The goal now is to lower the cost of use for community groups, Byrnes and Huleatt said.
Huleatt remembers some of the stand-out shows that have come to town over the years. One time, they had to cover everything in plastic because thoroughly greased-up bodybuilders were performing. There also have been church Christmas and Easter performances, and a long list of dance groups, among them ballet companies with winter productions of “The Nutcracker.”
High school shows became grander with the new space, too, Byrnes said. In one performance of “Peter Pan,” student actors were able to fly thanks to the space and stunt equipment.
Byrnes can’t remember a project quite as overwhelming and rewarding as building the performing arts center. She hopes people will pack the space this weekend to celebrate, especially those who have contributed their time, talents or money along the way.
“This is just a testament to what a community can do when they decide they want something, no matter how outrageous,” Byrnes said. “I really did think they were crazy at first.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439; kbray@heraldnet.com.
Join in
Byrnes Performing Arts Center 10-year celebration: Tours start Saturday at 5 p.m., concerts at 7 and 8 p.m. at 18821 Crown Ridge Blvd. Free admission.
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