Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

HIT celebrates Valentine's Day

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood - The Historic Ironwood Theatre invited the community to celebrate Valentine's Day at the theater with a night of champagne, chocolates and excellent music Friday evening.

"I've been wandering, talking to people and it sounds like everyone is having a great time," theater board president Zona Wick said, calling the event a bit of an experiment for the theater.

She explained Friday's event is part of an effort to replace the "Big Hit" fundraiser the theater has held at the Ironwood Memorial Building in recent years.

"I will get some feedback from people - see how they like it, see what we can do better," Wick said. "We started slow this year, and maybe we can build on this."

Not only was the big fundraiser a massive undertaking for volunteers to pull off, but Wick said some of the theater board felt it didn't make sense to have fundraisers in other buildings when other groups hold their fundraisers at the theater.

Instead the theater is holding several smaller events, according to Wick, rather than the large single event.

The musical entertainment for the night featured two rotating pianists - Tim Mesun and Yazmín - along with guest vocalists Desireé, Vivian and Lahtida.

The money raised from Friday's event will help pay for the $70,000 sound system that the theater recently installed.

Between grants and fundraising, Wick said the theater has already raised roughly $50,000 of the cost already.

More information on the theater and a list of its future performances can be found at ironwoodtheatre.net.