Register Reporter 

   When organizers dreamed up the idea of a community-wide event featuring music and art in a coffee- house setting, they said they were hoping for a good turnout.

   What happened exceeded their expectations, Sanford High School’s Red and White Club Advisor Nancy Kane said.

   “It’s beyond words,” Taylor Madore, one of the event organizers, said. 

   Twenty-three round tables, each to accommodate six people, were set up in the Nasson Community Center gym for the first Expression of the Arts.

   “Half an hour before the event began, people began lining up,” Kane said.

   Before long, attendees didn’t just fill the tables —  some sat in chairs lined up in back and others chose to stand. Others strolled about gazing at the art display while various genres of music blared from the stage.

   The dream of the Red & White Club, which publishes the school’s Red & White magazine and newsletter, was realized.

   A dessert table, coffee and a chocolate fountain provided snacks while live music, performed by Louie Coluni, John Rachkowski, Ric Harris, Nate & Steve, Joan Fox and Dan Guillemette offered music from blues to Irish tunes, had people tapping their feet and clapping to the beat.

   A performance by The Blue Stream Band, whose members include Sanford students Alex Robinson, Tony Labbe, Aaron Labbe and Michael Stanley, earned rousing applause from their classmates in the audience.

   Looking over the crowd, Nasson Community Center Executive Director Alan Walsh smiled.

   “I’m very pleased,” he said. “This proves to me there is an audience for what is being presented. I’m so proud of the Sanford Red & White (club students).”

   He said he was so impressed with the turnout, he would not hesitate to expand on the event in the future.

   Muriel Poulin, a Nasson Community Center volunteer and Little Theatre committee member, said she was pleased with the turnout and timing of Expression of the Arts.

   “We are getting ready to open the Little Theatre,” she said. “It (Expression of the Arts) is a test of the community.”

   She said when the Nasson Community Center Alumni Association began to talk about a community center that featured events like Expression of the Arts, nobody would listen.

   “Now our efforts are beginning to show. It’s a great community project,” Poulin said.

  Anna Ashley, one of the original founders of the Nasson Community Center called Expression of the Arts  “very nice.”

  “This is exactly the kind of thing we wanted,” Ashley said. “(Nasson Community Center) is a lot more than a gym. I’m delighted by the turnout.”

   “If the turnout was so good this time, we can double this,” Sanford/Springvale Chamber of Commerce President Rick Stanley said.

   Sanford High School Principal Alan Young was also one of the attendees.

   “This is phenomenal,” Young said. “They pulled it off. I’m so proud of the kids.”

   He said he enjoyed listening to music that was popular years ago.

   “It’s come full circle,” he said. “The kids appreciate music that we used to listen to. It just says to me that music back then was good.”

To contact Renee Worthing, emal news@intheregister.com or 282-4337 ext. 240