It’S Showtime, With Lots Of Class Students’ Marketing Project Draws Community Support, Benefits School

Ed Benjamin hasn’t gotten much sleep the last few nights because of the stress.

Will everyone show up to help? Will there be enough parking? Will Juice Newton’s plane arrive?

These and other questions plague the Sandpoint High School student, who is co-managing the Juice Newton concert today at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.

“It’s so much stress,” he said. “I just realized last week that everything has to come together now.”

Benjamin and classmate John Hawkins were overseeing efforts Saturday to set up the stage and decorate the interior of the main exhibition building for the performance.

But they were as involved in the nitty-gritty details as the other volunteers who were there.

Benjamin had the not-so-glamorous job of marking metal folding chairs to keep track of them. The 1,050 chairs were donated by two different school districts, the Eagles club, a church and Northern Lights Power Co.

The concert has become a community effort of sorts, as the marketing students scrambled to bring their class project to fruition. They plan to enter the effort in a statewide DECA competition.

The proceeds will go toward school programs and scholarships.

“There’s nothing in here so far that we’ve had to pay for,” said Hawkins in the exhibition hall, where art teacher Dan Shook created cupid murals with charcoal and spray paint, the math club members assembled the stage and student council members hung giant construction paper hearts.

“I’m so afraid of heights. I’m so afraid of heights,” chanted Katie Rogers, a freshman, who rode a mechanical lift on loan from Litehouse Dressing to hang decorations.

Litehouse also loaned them a couple of Suburbans as a taxi service for Juice Newton’s band, which is scheduled to arrive at Spokane International Airport today. Litehouse’s involvement is partly due to the fact that Hawkins is the son of the owner.

Other major sponsors are Schweitzer Mountain Resort and Coldwater Creek. But numerous other businesses, groups and individuals have thrown their support into the class project.

The high school’s security guard is heading up a 15-member volunteer team of guards, including four police officers, to provide security.

The Edgewater Resort donated rooms for the band members as well as the lucky winners of a radio drawing. The prize package also includes tickets, dinner and Schweitzer lift tickets. The local cable company helped with TV advertising, and the marketing teacher sold 200 tickets himself.

“He went nuts,” Benjamin said.

The math club took charge of ticket sales, while the student council agreed to decorate if they could use the decorations for their own dance next weekend.

“It’s amazing when you do something big, how many people you find out you know,” Benjamin said.

One of the biggest donations was the stage, provided by the Lost in the ‘50s car show organizers, who host their own concert each year.

Lost in the ‘50s coordinator Carolyn Gleason not only gave the students the stage, but some good advice: Hire Festival at Sandpoint’s production director Dave Nygren.

Nygren’s time, much of which is donated, along with the rental of lights, sound systems and instruments cost about $3,500, the students said.

Nygren has become a sort of adviser to the students, who have come to rely on his expertise.

“The biggest challenge is to get people to forget they’re in the middle of a big barn in North Idaho,” Nygren said Saturday, as volunteers worked hard to achieve the right effect.

Hawkins and Benjamin took on the concert project back in September, when they started trying to find a performer to book for a Valentine’s Day concert.

They worked the phones, three of which were donated to the marketing classroom by the school district specifically for this and other projects.

“The class is all about getting confident calling people and talking to people on the phone,” Hawkins said. The two students got their phone experience calling agents.

They first tried to get Three Dog Night, until they found out the booking fee would be more than $20,000. Merle Haggard was eliminated, too, when they found out his booking fee was $25,000.

But an agent suggested Juice Newton and a few other performers who only charged $7,000. Newton’s pop hit “Queen of Hearts” was the clincher for the Valentine’s holiday concert.

When Newton won her Grammys, Benjamin was just a baby, but that doesn’t muffle his enthusiasm for tonight’s performance: “It’s going to be a great concert.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO Juice Newton

Doors open at 5 p.m. today for the Juice Newton Concert at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. Men in the Making will open the show at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at the door.