We are pleased to say that our 2024-2025 Golden Belt Community Concert Membership Campaign was extremely successful. We thank all of our members for their prompt response to our campaign. To our renewals, thank you for your continued support. To our new members, welcome and thank you for joining. Members can expect to receive their tickets prior to the first concert set for Oct. 3. We encourage all members to keep in mind, if they find they are unable to attend a concert, they can loan their ticket to a friend.
Catch-a-Ride!
In the past couple of years, we have had several inquiries about how we might arrange transportation to our concerts for our out-of-town members who do not feel comfortable driving on the highway at night. This spring, our president Harlen Jerke began checking out how some local agencies might be able to help us with this kind of transportation.
He was pleased to find out that Sunflower Diversified Services’ Catch-a-Ride can provide transportation for certain communities surrounding Great Bend. After a planning session with Shelby Zuniga, Sunflower Executive Director and CFO, and Christina Jimenez, Director of Transportation, and additional help from Kathy Copp, site director for Friendship House in Hoisington, they were able to arrange the first ever Catch-a-Ride to a Golden Belt Community Concert.
Included were six of our Hoisington members, traveling on May 3 from the parking lot of Friendship House to the last concert of our season, J. Robert Spencer. Their cost for the ride was a whopping $4, round trip.
Conversations are continuing for possibly expanding this arrangement to include transportation not only for Hoisington members, but also for those in Ellinwood and other communities in the area. Once we have had a chance to publicize these arrangements, we have a pretty good idea that more and more members in these communities will begin taking advantage of the transportation provided by Catch-a-Ride.
Dressing rooms getting much needed makeover
Our performers’ dressing rooms to the right and left of the stage in the Great Bend Municipal Auditorium have long (for a very, very long time) needed to be refurbished. Last month Stueder Contractors, Inc., offered to donate labor and materials for refurbishing the two rooms to make them more comfortable and usable by our performing artists.
The work has already begun. The single electrical outlets in both dressing rooms have been replaced by multiple outlets, better lighting has been installed, and mirrors are being replaced.
The dressing room to the right of the stage now has a new sink with new faucets, running water, and the sink drains properly. Stueder Contractors has agreed to continue making improvements as time allows. We send a BIG thank-you to Stueder Contractors for their generosity.
For improving dressing room furnishings as well, we would welcome monetary contributions from members who wish to help with replacing the 1950s-style furniture in both rooms.
New “Featured” Travel Tours chosen
GBCCA membership now comes with travel savings for members, and equal benefits for the association, through our Travel Benefit with Cheyenne Travel/Please Go Away Vacations. We are happy to say that we have chosen six “Featured” tours for 2025, which is a boost from just three selections chosen for each of our previous two travel seasons.
The word “Featured” means our association is recommending them because we believe these tours would be of interest to many of our members.
Our 2025 “Featured” tours include: Spring in the South; California Without Its Big Cities; Canada and New England Fall Cruise; 2025 Jubilee – A Pilgrimage to Rome, Assisi, Padua and Venice, hosted by Fr. Don Bedore; Morocco in Depth; and Historic Holidays featuring Greenbrier Resort, Washington, D.C., Monticello and Williamsburg.
If our members prefer a different destination, Cheyenne Travel has many more tours available that will equally benefit our members and our concert association.
Linda Jerke is 2nd vice president and publicity chair of the Golden Belt Community Concert Association. She was Localife Editor for the Tribune for 22 years and was a communications specialist in the Office of College Communications at Barton Community College for 17 years before her retirement in 2011. She can be contacted by email:lindajerke@gmail.com.
