Community briefs for April 24
Pancakes
Whitefish Wrestling Club will be hosting a pancake breakfast fundraiser in conjunction with the ARM Track meet on Saturday, April 27. Pancakes and sausage $6 from 7-11 a.m. in the high school wrestling room next to the track. Proceeds will go toward helping athletes go to summer camps.
Cleaning day
The Whitefish Theatre Company is hosting a spring cleaning day at the O’Shaughnessy Center on Sunday, April 28 from 9 a.m. to noon. Join the theatre staff for a fun day of camaraderie while you help the O’Shaughnessy Center shine inside and out. Call 862-5371 if you can help at this family-friendly event and then stay for lunch on us at noon. WTC will offer food, drinks, and a glimpse of the 2019-2020 theatre and music season.
Driver course
NW Montana AARP will hold a Smart Driver Course on May 7 at the North Valley Hospital from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Call 863-3627 for a reservation.
Digital talk
Whitefish Christian Academy is sponsoring a seminar for parents entitled “Digital Drugs: The Effects of Screen Time Upon Children” on Thursday, April 25 from 7-8:30 p.m. at Whitefish church of the Nazarene. Two board certified psychiatrists will lead the seminar, Constance Mash and Joseph Boyle.
“Research shows that too much screen time directly correlates to depression and suicide, and any seasoned educators who are not themselves victims of digital addiction will tell you they see that too much screen time directly correlates to depression and suicide, and seasoned educators who are not themselves victims of digital addiction will tell you they see that too much screen time short-circuits thinking, diminishes linguistic skills, and impedes social development,” says headmaster Hal Brunson.
The event is open to the public.
Book presentation
The Whitefish Community Library will host Doug Ammons as he presents a program based on his High Plains Book Award book “A Darkness Lit by Heroes” on Monday, April 29, at 7 p.m. This is the story of the biggest hard rock mining accident in America — the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine fire in Butte in 1917. The fire claimed the lives of 168 men. Ammons said a key element to the book was a huge collection of witness interviews that had been lost for 100 years.
AFS hosts
Would you like to broaden your horizons and bring the world to your family? Consider inviting another culture to your home by hosting an American Field Services high school exchange student for the next school year. AFS is now placing exchange students in the Flathead Valley. It is an opportunity for your family to experience another culture in your own home. If interested contact, Bruce Aronson at (406) 250-4248 or brucecraib@gmail.com or Kendra Hope at (406) 250-5532 or kendraehope@gmail.com
FVCC Library Holds Used Book Sale
Flathead Valley Community College will hold a used book sale Thursday, April 18 through Sunday, April 28 in the campus library, located inside the Learning Resource Center Building. Hours of the sale will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 12 to 4:30 p.m. on weekends. Books will be priced at $1 each until Thursday, April 25 and discounted to 25 cents thereafter. The FVCC Library is preparing to move to its new location inside the Broussard Family Library and Learning Commons later this spring.
Book group
The Whitefish Community Library Book Group’s monthly meeting will be on Wednesday, April 24 at 6 p.m. in the community room. This month’s book is “The Water is Wide: a Memoir” by Pat Conroy. In this book, Conroy decided to try teaching on a barrier island off the coast of South Carolina. He knew the students were illiterate, but he accepted the challenge. Not one student knew what country they lived in, or who the president of the U.S. was. Newcomers are always welcome. For more information, call Whitefish Community Library at 862-9914.
Play festival
Flathead Valley Community College’s Theatre Arts Department will present the 10-Minute Play Festival May 2-4. The festival is the culmination of this semester’s Beginning Directing II class, in which students learned about directing techniques, script analysis and casting. As part of the required capstone project, each student in the class selected a script from a collection of more than 900 original scripts, auditioned actors and worked with cast members to produce and direct the performance.
Free and open to the public, performances begin at 7 p.m. each night in the campus theatre, located inside the Arts and Technology Building. Although there is no charge to attend the festival, cash donations will be accepted at the door. For more information, contact FVCC Speech and Theatre Arts Professor Joe Legate at 756-3906 or jlegate@fvcc.edu.
Life Raft Debate
Flathead Valley Community College’s Mask & Hammer Theatre Club is hosting the first annual FVCC Life Raft Debate on Monday, May 6.
Modeled after the annual event held at the University of Montevallo in Alabama since 1998, the Life Raft Debate challenges the audience to imagine a world where North America is no longer inhabitable and the remaining members of society must set sail to establish a new home. Seats on the boat are limited, however, and the audience must determine which college professor is most worthy of the last seat.
FVCC’s Life Raft Debate will feature four faculty members vying to convince the audience that his or her discipline is the most critical to the success of the new civilization. Audience members will choose from Associate Professor of English Conrad Rauscher, Associate Professor of Natural Resources Christina Relyea, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Physiology Karla Ryan and Culinary Institute of Montana Program Director Shannon Hayashi. The winner of this year’s FVCC Life Raft Debate will receive a trophy oar to keep for one year and will compete against a new set of challengers at the second annual debate in 2020.
Free and open to the public, the debate will begin at 7 p.m. in the campus theatre, located inside the Arts and Technology Building. For more information, contact FVCC Associate Professor of Theatre and Music Rich Haptonstall at rhaptonstall@fvcc.edu or 756-3962.