Jewel Box sparkles with holiday donation

POULSBO — The Poulsbo Players learned two things from their recent run of “Lies and Legends: The Musical Stories of Harry Chapin” — the public was ready for a musical and they were also ready and willing to embrace Chapin’s spirit of giving.

“Lies and Legends,” which closed Nov. 23, was the 2-year-old Jewel Box Theatre’s first musical production. Producer Al Gunby said the players were pleased to see the show set records for attendance, but they were equally impressed with theatre-goers’ willingness to help those in need.

In honor of Chapin, who’s known for songs like “Cat’s in the Cradle” and also for his tireless work on humanitarian causes, donations for Poulsbo’s Fishline Food Bank were accepted throughout the month-long run.

The end result was $978 and 330 pounds of food donated to Fishline. Gunby said just days after turning the contributions over to the food bank he heard from Director Tricia Sullivan, who said she’d already spent the majority of the cash donations on turkeys and other meat products that would be well-received but are rarely donated during the holiday season.

“It was a small thing we could do and I think the generosity of the community really deserves the thanks,” Gunby said of the donation.

But the theatre’s generosity didn’t stop there. Troupe members decided that since the food donated during the “Lies and Legends” run wasn’t as much as they’d hoped for that they would ask the community to also bring donations during its “A Jewel Box Christmas” show, which closed Dec. 14. The show was free, but audiences were asked to bring a non-perishable food item as their “admission.” Gunby said the Christmas show garnered an additional 210 pounds of food, bringing the total food donated to Fishline to 540 pounds.

“We did this last year and I think we counted it a success because it was a first effort but I think this year was really a success and I think we’ll probably make this a Christmas tradition,” Gunby remarked about the result of their call for help to the community. “We’re happy to give back to the community because that’s a what a good institution does.”

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