LAURINBURG — It was a special night for the Arts Council of Scotland County during its annual fundraiser Saturday, but not as special as it was for a Jackson Springs couple.
William Pastrana used the event as a backdrop to propose to his girlfriend, Laurinburg native Christy Gibbons, at the end of a dance during a concert by Cat5.
“This night just keeps getting better,” said Terry Gallman, one of the organizers of the fundraiser.
The band even asked the couple to come to the stage and tell the crowd what just took place.
“I asked her to be my wife,” Patrana said, “and she said yes.”
Gibbons said she was “totally surprised” by the proposal and didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the night.
The evening opened with a silent auction that featured 31 items inside the Storytelling & Arts Center in downtown Laurinburg. Those in attendance paid $40 per person to participate in the fundraiser.
“We’ve had a ‘Dancing With the Stars’ type of fundraiser the last few years, but we couldn’t pull it off this year,” Gallman said. “But this fundraiser is extremely important for us — it pays for the building rent and someone to coordinate the use of the space here.
“We’ve had a silent auction each year, but this one is our biggest,” she added.
The Arts Council has called the Storytelling & Arts Center building home for about 12 years. Over those years, it has been the site for art classes, a summer art camp and numerous ENCORE! Theater plays — as well as rented for a wide variety of events.
“The biggest way having this building helps is that it gives ENCORE! a place to call home,” Gallman said.
While the Arts Council receives annual funding from the city and county, as well as grants from the state, those can’t be used to help pay rent or building maintenance.
“That makes this fundraiser huge,” Gallman said. “And we are thrilled to have been able to get Cat5 — a super band recently formed from three members of Coastline, one from Hip Pocket and one from the Band of Oz.”
Cat5, which got the attention of everyone with a warm-up song by Boz Scaggs (“Lido Shuffle”), officially opened the show with a soundtrack from a weather report of a Category 5 hurricane — then went right into “Foot Stomping” by The Flares and followed up with more Scaggs music mixed in with others by Journey, the Temptations and more.
During the band’s break, a live auction was conducted by WLNC’s Dave Wells that included a pair of tickets to a Carolina Panthers versus Tennessee Titans NFL game; a three-night weekend vacation at Crescent Beach; an all-day fishing and catered lunch for two at King Fisher Society in Laurel Hills; and a vintage Morgan Mills, circa 1940s woven bedspread in a Minuet pattern.
Once the live auction ended, Cat5 finished off the evening with its second set.
More than 75 people attended the fundraiser.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 506-3023 or [email protected].
