Benefit for Hart Family on Thursday

If you go see locally-produced shows in the Spokane area, you might recognize this fellow at right: John Hart. This was part of a photo taken for "A Reduced Christmas Carol" (hence the paper chain "links" for Marley... other silly stuff not visible in this clip). John and his wife Beth added to their family a month ago, and unfortunately baby Colin is critically ill.

Beth is a teacher at St. Aloysius Elementary School. The school is holding a spaghetti-feed dinner/fundraiser on Thursday night. Come to the cafeteria at St. Al’s, 611 E. Mission (Mission and Standard) between 5-7 p.m. for spaghetti, salad, rolls, and dessert. They will also sell raffle tickets for a variety of gift baskets, including a KPBX gift basket. Suggested donation is $5 adult, $3 child, or $20 family.

The KPBX Arts Calendar doesn't post non-arts fundraiser announcements, so I'm a little disappointed I can't share this more on the air. John and Beth Hart are pretty important to me. I've done a couple of shows with John, most recently I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, also Return to the Forbidden Planet. But he's also an excellent dad and teacher's aide. It's too sweet watching him with their preschool-aged daughter, and he comes in to Beth's classroom regularly to clean the frog tank. Meanwhile, I can't say enough good things about Beth as a teacher. She is kind but firm, open to new ways of teaching, always concerned for her students' safety, and very creative. To get kids interested in brushing teeth, she figured out how to cut the bottom half off of small clear-plastic soda bottles (the lumpy bumpy bottoms), paint the insides white, cut a pink sheet of Foamies lengthwise and glue it on the open parts of the bottle, then turn it all over. Voila! A big set of teeth, to brush with big toothbrushes. (With that kind of reinforcement at school, my daughter actually ASKED to brush her teeth at home!) And these two caring, loving people are going through any parent's absolute worst nightmare.

If you can’t come to the spaghetti feed but would like to make a donation to the Hart family, please mail to Sandra Skeim at St. Aloysius, 611 E. Mission, Spokane WA 99202.