Panida Theater Mortgage Burned

When Sandpoint’s Panida Theater burned its mortgage Saturday night, officials got out their marshmallows.

“That felt good,” laughed theater manager Karen Bowers. “It was really wonderful.”

An estimated 350 people showed up for the fund-raiser to retire the last $17,000 of the historic theater’s $200,000 mortgage.

Restaurants donated hors d’oevres, models paraded fashions and auctions were held for art and vacations in Hawaii, England and Mexico.

“People bid really high,” said Bowers. “It was the community saying ‘We want this (theater) to be ours and we’ll make it ours.”’

Three “founding moms” fought a decade ago to save the historic theater from demolition.

Today, the once-decrepit building is Sandpoint’s cultural hub, a venue for popular musicians, movies, ballets, dance recitals and opera.

Saturday’s event raised an estimated $23,000. Some of that will go toward expenses, but it was enough to to pay off the mortgage - and more.

Combined with money raised from recent fund raising letters, theater officials also had enough to spend $5,000 on restroom renovations, $2,000 toward a new stage dance floor and $1,000 toward a regulation-size baseball field at the high school.

Baseball games at Memorial Field clash for space with the popular Festival at Sandpoint each year.

The mortgage burned Saturday night actually was a copy of the actual document, Bowers said.

“You’ve got to save it, you know,” she said.

, DataTimes