Talent show brings in funds

THOMPSON FALLS - The Thompson River Animal Care Shelter (TRACS) hosted its 9th annual, “Pretty Darn Good Variety Show and Fundraiser,” in the Rex Theater in Thompson Falls last week. The show was held to raise funds to help supplement the funds needed for the upkeep of the only animal shelter in Sanders County which is also a no kill shelter.

The show consisted of a live auction, a silent auction, skits and a talent show with 12 entries.

To start the evening, there was a live auction for the chance to have a bottle of champagne and the ability to sit on a front row couch. Tom Eggensperger of the Sanders County Ledger was the highest bidder and with his wife and two friends got to sit for the rest of the night on the front row couch.

Once the beginning live auction of a selected few items finished, the show began. The acts were judged by three judges and were either given a pass or were told they weren’t moving on. The joke was that if they were to move on they were going to Perma to continue on in the competition. The 12 entries were competing for a $100 Visa Prepaid Card.

The audience was given a pamphlet at the beginning of the show with a tear-off sheet on which they could mark down their favorite performance.

The first entry was a group of Zumba dancers. The group was called, “Zuma Queen and Her Entourage.” The group did a Zumba routine all in unison to vary forms of Latin and Pop music. They were given a fake golden ticket and were told they were going to Perma.

As the night continued the audience was treated to mostly musical performances, with the exception of a few performances that included some comedy routines. One such routine was done by a group called, “The Herring Players.” The group played on politics and governmental cliches. The political jokes got a large laugh out of many people in the audience.

The winning act of the night was performed by four high school students who created a band called, “OC DC.” With a full on lighting show, the four teenagers played AC/DC’s, “Thunderstruck.” The audience was blown away as a teenager sang just as the lead singer, Brian Johnson, sang the song. “I just listen to a lot of AC/DC music and I picked it up,” said Colby Lantz who said that people call him, “Bird,” because of his falsetto style of singing.

The rest of the group, Wilson Hidy the drummer, Tyler McCraughey the guitarist, and Baron Rinzler the other guitarist, all said, “Youtube does wonders,” to explain how they learned to play like AC/DC.

During the performances there was a second a second part to the live auction. Some of the items that people bid on were framed photos, necklaces and pine end tables.   

“We just need operating funds. We have a fairly high operating cost every month, so we try to do these fundraisers periodically,” said Wanda Thorpe, the Operations Manager and founder. She then said, “We adopted 17 dogs this week, since Monday... That’s why we do all of this.” Thorpe explained that the electricity bill alone costs the center at least $1,200 dollars a month.

When the show was over, all of the performers and contestants stayed behind to help clean up. Thorpe explained that the TRACS volunteers were also the ones that donated most of the live and silent auction items. Petsmart also donated surplus seasonal pet gear towards the auction.