Green with envy

Dear editor:
It was with great interest and pleasure that our family recently was given the “grand tour” of the almost completed Fort Frances Centre for the Performing Arts (oops . . . the Town’s End Theatre) by one widely-grinning John Dutton.
Congratulations! Even unfinished, the centre looks fantastic! I was (dark) green with envy and instantly felt excitement for the Rainy River District–for all the future students and community groups, performers, and audiences who will use it in the very near future.
There were so many times over the years when roadblocks, both financial and political, seemed so insurmountable that many wondered (myself included) if the project would ever succeed. The incredible hard work, dedication, and vision of John Dutton, along with Carol Lyons, Chris Denby, FFHS students, et al., must be acknowledged and boisterously applauded!
Now there are no excuses why “tour de Fort” and Fort Frances Little Theatre (to name but a few groups) shouldn’t flourish, why new groups should not be inspired to be created, and why residents of this region (both Canadian and American) shouldn’t enjoy the finest of live entertainment in a plush, first-rate, fixed-seat community venue.
The Centre for the Performing Arts will be a focal point in Fort Frances and surrounding communities–you supported it, now own it!
As Natalie MacMaster’s fiddling and dancing dazzles you at the opening gala Sept. 20, may it be but a flash point of an artistic wildfire that all Northwestern Ontario will watch with envy.
Congratulations again!
Signed,
Ted Jablonski and family,
Ex-residents but continued
Fort Frances supporters