Central
Auditorium Getting New Seats! 
By Marcia Elliott, EPI writer/photographer
(August 2003)
The following article was published in the Camp Point Journal/Golden
New Era
The
auditorium at Central High School will be receiving new seats, or at
least they will be new to attendees of Central School functions. The
300 seats are actually the old seats out of the Showcase Theater in
Quincy that is currently undergoing renovations.
Last Friday, several Community Unit #3 employees, including the school's
new superintendent, Robert Bagby, gathered at Showcase Theater to carry
out the seats and load them into a semi-trailer, where they will be
stored until next summer. The seats were purchased by the Panther Pride
Foundation, that has been conducting an Adopt-A-Seat fundraiser to raise
funds for new seating and other renovations that need to be done to
the auditorium.
"The seats are costing us $6.50 a seat, plus we will have to pay for new covers for some of them," said Superintendent Bagby. "Instead of paying $150 for new seats, we will probably not have more than $20 in each seat, plus volunteer labor by the time all the expenses are figured out. That is a great savings that we just can't pass up."
Matt Schmidt, president of the Panther Pride Foundation, announced the kick-off of the fundraiser during this past school year and they have been asking for donations for the new seats.
Schmidt
said that the Central Teachers Education Association recently donated
$1,000 to the program, which helped pay for the bulk of the Showcase
Theater seats. "They (the teachers association) said that they
wanted to give something back to the students and that this was their
way of doing it, so we want to give them credit," said Schmidt.
Schmidt also said that the other donations they have already received
went towards the purchase of these seats.
"I think that the donations we have received shows the pride people have in the school and their kids," said Superintendent Bagby.
Bagby
and a crew consisting of Gary Higley, Karrie Leenerts, David Leenerts,
Lloyd Leenerts, and John Schisler removed the seats from the theater
and loaded them into the back of the semi trailer. They are renting
the trailer from Sharkey Transportation for a year until they will be
able to remove the old seating and refinish the floor, which is also
going to require some asbestos removal.
"Since we have the seats now, our fund raising may shift a bit
towards raising funds fro renovating the stage, sound system and lights,"
said Schmidt. "We have to renovate the while auditorium eventually,
though we still need some funds to be used towards the new felt seat
covers."
If
anyone would like to make a donation towards the auditorium, they may
do so by contacting the Superintendent's office or members of the Panther
Pride Foundation. 
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