These Women Long On Courage

They’re called the “Founding Moms” - three women who gambled on Sandpoint’s commitment to the arts and won.

Jane Evans. Laurel Wagers. Susan Bates-Harbuck.

Their campaign to save the historic Panida Theater from a wrecking ball ended in complete success this month. With $17,000 donated by Marilyn Sabella’s annual Holly Eve auction, The Panida board of directors paid off the theater’s 20-year mortgage.

In five years.

Incredibly, Panida supporters raised the $200,000 purchase price without the aid of tax dollars or grants.

In fact, they received few donations of $1,000 or more. The Panida, one of the Northwest’s premier movie houses when it opened in 1927, was saved by fund-raisers and innumerable small donations.

As public money gets tighter, communities will have to rely more on themselves to build and preserve centers like The Panida.

Evans, Wagers and Bates-Harbuck faced long odds when they first asked owner Black Diamond Cattle Co. about buying the theater. The Alberta company wanted $300,000 but was talked down. Still, the women needed $40,000 for a down payment.

They raised $90,000 in three months by selling bricks with the donors’ names on them.

“Everyone said it couldn’t be done, and we did it,” Evans said.

Money left over from the down payment paid for repairs to open the doors on the dilapidated theater. Half the theater-style seats in the building had been removed or stolen. Piles of plaster that once adorned the ceiling lay on the floor, and a river of water from a leaky roof was running down the balcony stairs.

Since then, the 600-seat theater on First Street has become the community’s social center. It’s booked almost every weekend. Performers Bonnie Raitt, Arlo Guthrie and Wynton Marsalis have praised the theater’s incredible acoustics.

All because three women had the courage to follow a dream. Kudos.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board