January 29, 2008                                                                                                                                               Associate Director of Marketing

                                                                                                                                                                               Phone: 253.573.2360

                                                                                                                                                                               Email: laceyl@broadwaycenter.org

25 Years of Dedication:

Broadway Center Honored Board of Trustees

Through Celebration of Leadership

Tacoma, WA – Broadway Center for the Performing Arts honored Board of Trustees, both past and present, on Thursday, January 24, 2008 for up to 25 years of dedication. The Broadway Center recently instituted term-limits for its Trustees and that action inspired a celebration of those who served 10 years or more. The Celebration of Leadership event took place on the stage of Downtown Tacoma’s Pantages Theater, where more than 75 community leaders gathered to reminisce about the past and look to the future.

The evening, which included a reception in the recently renovated Pantages Lobby and dinner on the historic Pantages stage, honored Board Members who have served for more than ten years. The list of honorees included:

20+ Years of Service: Steph Farber, Griselda “Babe” Lehrer, and Bethel J. Schneebeck (posthumous).

15 – 20 Years of Service: Judge Rosanne Buckner, James P. Dawson, Gertrude Hughes, Margaret Lapin, and Gregory H. Pratt.

10 – 15 Years of Service: David B. Allen, James R Anderson, Barbara C. Baldwin, William P. Bergsten, Ann Brown, Bob Bruback, Larry J. Couture, Jan Twardowski, Wayne M. Mannie, Peter K. Marsh MD, Eroline Baker Martyn (posthumous), Tim McNair MD, Dick Moe, Elsie Strobel (posthumous), and John Trueman.

Executive Director of the Broadway Center David Fischer acknowledged the contributions of these Board Members, saying, “We at the Broadway Center, and the greater Tacoma community, are incredibly grateful and indebted to all of our Board of Trustees through the years for their fierce dedication, their dynamic vision, and their genuine belief in celebrating the human experience as we do through live performance. Tacoma has reaped unfathomable benefits from their efforts, and we would not be where we are as a community today without their passionate leadership.”

Each honoree received a commemorative magnum of wine with an etched message of tribute; each was honored with speeches, including by guest speakers, Tacoma News Tribune Editorial Page Editor Dave Seago (honoring Farber), Brian Boyd of Grantmaker Consultants (honoring Lehrer), and current Board member Bill Martyn (honoring Schneebeck). Other speakers included current Board of Trustees president Barbara Reed, and Broadway Center Deputy Executive Director Benjii Bittle. All honorees will be recognized in perpetuity through a permanent bronze plaque that will be displayed in the Pantages Theater Lobby.

The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, founded in 1983, is the organization responsible for the Theatre on the Square, as well as the 90 year old Pantages and Rialto Theaters. The Broadway Center has encouraged generations of Puget Sound residents to gather in the Theater District at the corners of 9th and Broadway – the heart of Tacoma – to celebrate, honor and sometimes grieve the “collective experience.” The theaters and the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts have played a significant role in enriching the community, and continue to work to provide Tacoma with some of the finest live entertainment in the nation.

The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts gratefully acknowledges the following for support of the 2007-2008 Season: ArtsFund, Ben B. Cheney Foundation, The Boeing Company, City of Tacoma, Forest Foundation, The News Tribune, Pierce County Arts Commission, Sequoia Foundation Pierce County Program, and Washington State Arts Commission.

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