Fundraiser gala Saturday, June 19
By Michael Moran
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a critical blow to the Cape Coral and Lee County arts community, so it’s especially gratifying when donors like The Culliton Gunterberg Foundation and our wonderful members and patrons stepped forward to help.
It is important to our board, staff and me that, even while our doors were closed, the Cultural Park Theater continued to support the community as they supported us. We take pride that we opened the doors of our theater as one of the first locations for the public to get the first round of Covid shots here in Cape Coral. This was before large sites were open to the public and over 1,200 people showed up, many of them spending the night in our parking lot to be the first in line for the long awaited chance to receive the vaccine. Over 800 shots went out to the public in a single day.
Though the availability of the number of shots then was limited, the local press said the organization of the day far surpassed previous attempts in the county. For our theater, we were proud to add this effort to our mission to be all supportive of the community we have been part of for the last 58 years.
Our staff and board were also proud to open a limited summer camp that not only allowed children to experience theater skills but to have done so safely with strict guidelines, allowing all attendees to enjoy the summer camp experience. Thanks to the efforts of our camp staff who took pain staking steps creating not only a healthy environment but developed socially distanced blocking, each of the three camp productions offered students the incredible feeling of being in a full stage production.
More than ever we were able to brag about our wonderful caring staff of counselors who look after the children in our community. As we found safe and inventive ways to partially open the theater with extremely limited seating, we strived to keep not only our theater but “live theater” a valuable part of our community. While doing so we were so happy to join with The Brotherhood of Heroes Museum here in the Cape for a fundraising event to support this newest Veterans organization and resource center.
We aren’t bragging, in fact we are very aware that much work needs to be done to ensure that our little theater company can survive the huge financial hit the pandemic caused our nonprofit company as we move forward out of the pandemic. Yet we do take great pride and are so thankful for the support we received as we continued to step up and live up to our mission in keeping the “community” in community theater.
Moving forward, we invite you to join us on June 19 for our 2nd Heart for the Arts Gala fundraising show presented live on stage and streamed online. This will be a wonderful night of live performances, raffles and other giveaways to support our theater company. Please contact our box office at 239-772-5862 and visit our facebook page and website at www.culturalparktheater.com for details for this very special night of entertainment. Also check out our reopening shows designed for the whole family throughout the summer with special productions of Peter Pan Jr. on July 4, Godspell Jr. on July 18 and Into the Woods Jr. on Aug. 1. All shows are at 3 p.m. Ticket prices for all shows are $10 each for all ages. Note: Covid 19 safety precautions and procedures remain in place.
The Cultural Park Theater is located at 528 Cultural Park Blvd., Cape Coral.
Michael Moran is executive director of the Cultural Park Theatre Company.
