The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

‘Thank you’ to the Niswonger volunteers

How many people does it take to run the Niswonger Performing Arts Center? Answer: 150 front of house volunteers, at least 10 regular stage crew volunteers, 50 committee members, three cleaning crew, 10 safety/security crew, several box office helpers, nine board members, six staff members, and an executive director: everything but a partridge in a pear tree!  If I count correctly, that’s just about 250 people.

How do you begin to say thank you to all those people? I guess you write about them in the news and say thank you as often as you see them. I am sure there are times the jobs seem a bit thankless, but hopefully, most of the time is rewarding. There is one thing that is for sure: we are truly blessed to have so many people willing to be a part of our operation at the Niswonger.

One group that gets little recognition (well, there are many, but I will mention one right now) is our Visual Arts Committee. Over the years, we have had numerous talented and gifted individuals serve as part of this committee. Currently, Linda Mechling is our committee chairperson and she has her crew of a few who decorate our lobbies and outdoors of the Niswonger. It is especially challenging, but beautiful at Christmastime. We have heard so many compliments on the appearance and it is due to this committee. Thank you, Linda and crew, for all your dedicated work. Some of these are the same who decorate the Brumback Library, churches, and numerous other community gathering areas.

Inside the music hall, our tech director’s wife, Kandi Saunier, helps create beautiful staging and decorations, as well as keeping the many volunteer staff well fed and happy. Thank you, Kandi! During big stage productions, this crew of volunteers will spend 16-20 continuous hours at the PAC. This is well beyond the call of duty and they can’t be thanked enough.

This highlights just a few of our many volunteers. There are so many who regularly dedicate their time.  They are not only Niswonger volunteers, but great ambassadors for the community of Van Wert. This Christmas season, we had six professional performances. Nearly 6,500 people attended these performances and, based on the reports of our ushers, the majority came from all over. Ask the restaurant owners in town if we were busy!

Our ushers and greeters are wonderful ambassadors and seemingly love to greet and welcome people to our community and our performing arts center. We constantly hear from people how welcome they feel at the Niswonger. One would think how we treat people is how everyone would treat people. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be true.

From the performer side, we hear the same thing. I just finished a phone call with the agent for The Texas Tenors and he was telling me how much the guys enjoyed our venue and hope to be back. Now, I always say that most performers like to perform at places that pay them, but it really does seem to be true that they feel the Niswonger is a very special place. The crew and management of Rudolph, the Musical wrote in their report that they wanted their agency to book them at the Niswonger again. It was the only such request on the tour, I was told.

People of Van Wert really do know how to treat people well. We are so blessed to have caring and hospitable people who are willing to donate their time. I will never take that for granted. And at this Christmas season, it is a perfect time to say thank you to all those who call the Niswonger Performing Arts Center their home for volunteering and choice for entertainment.

Merry Christmas to all of you and a very Happy New Year!  We look forward to seeing you next year.

FINÉ.

POSTED: 12/20/17 at 12:49 pm. FILED UNDER: News