Community news
Jazz songs
Ruder Elementary School fifth-graders will present "Gotta Be Jazz" on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium. Students will sing jazz songs from various eras.
Fishing derby
The 13th annual Canyon Kids Christmas Fund free ice-fishing derby will take place at Lion Lake, outside Hungry Horse, on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. One dollar raffle tickets will be sold for a 9-foot pontoon boat donated by Snappy's Sports Senter. Proceeds will benefit the Canyon Kids Christmas Fund, which gives presents each Christmas to children in the Canyon. There will be free rods and reels for kids while they last, along with free chili, coffee and cocoa.
Free meals
Columbia Falls Community Kitchen will serve free dinners in the basement of St. Richard's Catholic Church on Sunday through Wednesday, Feb. 26-29, at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome
Theater auditions
The Columbia Mountain Theatre Company, a newly established non-profit community theater group, will hold additional auditions for its first production at Glacier Discover Square on Thursday, Feb. 23, from 7-9 p.m. Auditions are open to adults with or without acting experience. Volunteer positions are available for production work. The season will open with two one-act plays: "Sham: A Social Satire," by Frank G. Tompkins, and "Wurzel-Flummery," a political satire by A. A. Milne. Performances will be at Glacier Discover Square Center on March 9, 10, 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 available at the door. For more information, visit online at www.columbiamountaintheaterco.org or contact Jeremias Johnson, director, at 471-0014 or info@columbiamountaintheaterco.org.
History talk
Bill Weikel, a professional engineer and surveyor, will talk about equipment and methods used by Lewis and Clark, explorer and cartographer David Thompson, road-builder John Mullan and other early surveyors at the Museum at Central School, in Kalispell, on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2:30 p.m. as part of the 10th annual John White Lecture Series. Weikel will be outfitted in traditional surveyor attire and will display items from the 1700s until the mid 1900s. Tickets are $6 for Northwest Montana Historical Society members and $9 for the general public. For more information, call 756-8381.
Board openings
Letters of interest are being accepted through Feb. 24 for one vacancy with a one-year term on the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board, five vacancies with three-year terms on Flathead County's Agency on Aging and four vacancies with three-year terms on the county's Transportation Advisory Board. Letters can be sent to Flathead County Commissioners, 800 South Main, Room 302, Kalispell MT 59901-5420. For more information, call 758-5537.