The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group (CDG) is hosting its Sixth Annual Uptown Theatre Honors.
The event will take place Saturday, Oct. 23, at 7:30 p.m., at the First Street Community Center Uptown Theatre, 221 First St. NE, Mount Vernon. This year’s honorees include Patty Ankrum, Janet Ault, Ann Booth, Barb Colehour, Dixie Collins and Karla Steffens. The honors gala will include speeches, live musical numbers and much more. Tickets to the event are $25 at the door, and include a wine-and-appetizer reception beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The annual Uptown Theatre Honors, Mount Vernon’s version of the Kennedy Center Honors, was initially conceived through the fundraising team the A-Go-Gos. The eight-person fundraising group is responsible for raising $17,000 for the First Street Community Center Uptown Theatre through the 2013 “Frank Benesh Memorial Uptown Theatre Telethon A-Go-Go!” The group also organized 2014’s “Las Vegas Karaoke Bingo A-Go-Go” and 2015’s “Frank Benesh Memorial Save the Traver Tapes Telethon A-Go-Go!” In 2019 the A-Go-Go volunteer team merged into the CDG volunteer pool, making the Uptown Theatre Honors a CDG event.
“We wanted to make this year the year of the women,” said Lisa White, chair of the Uptown Theatre Honors volunteer committee. “Last year’s event coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Theatre, an organization that owes a great debt to its women leaders. Of course, last year’s event was cancelled due to the pandemic. The good news is that all of our 2020 honorees — all women — were able to make it back for this year’s event. And we hope all of the community will show up to honor these six honorees and their many contributions to our communities.”
Further information about the event is available through Joe Jennison at (319) 210-9935 or [email protected]; or Trude Elliott at [email protected]