david foster and katharine mcphee and on new year's eve i sang around the piano with somebody said you got accolades for your signal they're going to foster said you have a good voice and one of the staff over here said are you sure he wasn't cut pointing to katharine i said no thirteen thousand people in an arena and then the vice president of hungary invited us all to the parliament building or when i hosted a state luncheon life you had tough wife it was it was very exciting it was very exciting and hungary and  really excited because now i'm going to be able to see that right i was going to miss them and then on a saturday no peterpan sold their entire tour they've had a postponement essentially their tour for this year they're going into revamping all the technical high tech stuff so we're looking who is our group saleswoman who is dancing your group sales call to his music every single day yeah he's really you know everybody on this you know it's all excited and very such a sweet guy i worked with him in philadelphia many many years ago in boston and so that's february sixteenth you can get tickets to california so yeah in fact you were i'm just going to me and name some of the later february shows dancing with the stars the beach boys george benson michael mcdonald heart sardine staying alive romeo and juliet right so that's just happened block you see i'm going to be there folks so daughtry you want to get tickets and you know we never say we say we don't have enough for the younger people here is an act for the younger i mean for a younger genera demo it and they'll love it they love it and then we if you want to check it out you go to you tube he's all over you tube it's well worth watching and then national symphony of cuba is coming and what can we say about this how timely is that to bring in the cuba symphony right while we've you know music movie junkie i love all movies been specially movie musicals and then we have a robot a coming back and there were one hundred ninety years again i'm working on a hundred twenty one book in that now play me some fiddler on the roof and yan told maybe and he's going try there you go and then the final show we have to talk about is somebody that i've had the opportunity to meet at several times and she's absolutely one of the most of those she is brilliant she's also done t v she rarely she's one of the emmy award judgment and a private practice right and we just we're going to leave you today with a little bit of the glorious audra mcdonald who will be here peace corps is a life defining leadership experience volunteers live and learn and work with a community overseas for twenty seven months providing grassroots assistance pesquera special because  of the two years of serving the peace corps i feel like i have brought something looking back in and seeing what i have given i can honestly say that i've seen ten times as much to explore how the peace corps can fit into your future be a of african american citizens the spaces of their stories are now on display at surface of a city hall throughout the month of february as we celebrate black history month welcome back to active in ways i marry ben so your host with jim selenski a friend of ours from the van ways the foundation it's my understanding you have a wonderful new job tell us about it jim i do thank you mary it's a pleasure to be with you again here today  i have just been elevated by the board of directors to the chief operating officer for the van with the foundation task stick pentax because of jim jim has been really responsible for working a lot on our new performing arts hall that we're trying to build and the fundraising for it so that it is not a big enough job in of itself jim you would think more on why not yes yes absolutely well we're really glad to have you at the helm and i think you can with that i talked a little bit about this in our last segment the biggest show of the year in my opinion is always our gala we've had some spectacular ones you've been named the best gal of the year twice by sarasota magazine or maybe it's three times i can't remember but barry manilow a legend let living legend will be coming and gallants feb sixteenth why don't you tell us a little bit about that night and what's going to happen if people become a patron and come to see the barry manilow show mary we are expecting just remember that what we're celebrating this is our seventeenth annual gala and you're right we have been very fortunate very blessed that serves sort of magazine and the herald tribune and other publications the observer  now it's all about this is our primary fundraiser for the year and as such those funds are your mark for the arts education program right here at the hall and for your viewers who may or may not know it is for the children right absolutely everything is for the children that is the primary mission of the van with a foundation we have now we're proud to say that last year as you know over thirty thousand children from fo counties all have the opportunity to come to the van with will and literally watch their classroom lessons come to life before their very eyes on this stage and for many of the children it's their first time ever performing it is one of the most rewarding things about this job is seeing those little kids come in and jim to be a little oh i don't know what to say but the foundation puts thirty thousand little well sixty thousand little feet on the bus correct and they give free busing to every child plus the foundation works with us on so many programs where we with title one schools we give the tickets away and even if you're in a school where they don't need the free tickets you might be a student or a parent that has a rough time and so we give away ten percent and every offer order rather to to a school because we don't want one single children child to stay home mary that's a great point and i am still surprised that when i share that information with people and i'm going to be so what do you mean outreach program and i'll say well there are families where there could be a single parent and it's difficult so many in the org and they have the children so what we want to do is say no one should be left behind no one should be left behind to the point where they don't have their spirit lifted as everyone else gets to by the live performing arts and the same thing with our military families absolutely often they are stationed in other parts of the world one stays back with the family and there's a lot of juggling a lot of sacrifices they make for our community and for our country and we also have some seniors here that are disenfranchised  know one gentleman had been an assistant architect on this program never been back in the building until the foundation providing free tickets and with the families the other part that was so great in my mind is they have dinner here  at madison's on the bay because they come as a family and this is some of the only times that the whole family sits down and has a meal mary it's great that you brought that up because the first time i attended the family family performance evenings i was really moved by just the humanness of everyone involved the parents were a little nervous the children were a lot less nervous you know but to see them actually coming together having some of the teachers involved with them the staff of the education for the van with will and to see the children and families reading together learning together it's really really  here i work for you absolutely and you do and the thank you notes we get many times in crayons is right tackler and of course we also because we don't have a long time list that we also have great programs where we have family nights at the theater or an adult can buy a ticket themselves bring their child for free and have a party afterwards with the cast we also work with the kennedy center for the performing our hall and then of course over the ten years i've been here the foundation has provided funds to beautify many parts of the hall so that is a lot of what this major amount of money that they raise at this gala right now let's just add you first show up and you come to a cocktail party on beautiful sarasota bay and you stand out there and have cocktails an hors d'oeuvres and yet last year the sun was sparkling it was gorgeous and then a fabulous dinner right correct and top of the bay from yeah i mean i am going to say can i buy a ticket yeah i think you're doing a great job and you're absolutely right first off what they should expect is the moment they step foot out of that bait front to get a cocktail they will be wild you're going to look at one of the the best and this is our entire town has to offer i saw the turtles night oh my god this event and the tape all the decorations and the foundation gala committee along with for the foundation is planning again just another spectacular event where you get your words you keep thinking what do we do next what do you do next year and of course barry manilow has so many number one hits he couldn't possibly even sing them all in one evening and then following the show there is one of the most fun after parties i sometimes feel like i'm at the oscars or something and you know they do sliders out on the grill and french fries and food and then the dancing even though i was exhausted idea and still i don't know one o'clock in the morning shoes came off and let's just quickly tell people they can get tickets to the foundation gala and tickets range from six hundred to six hundred to the v i p s experience a twelve hundred for ticket and remember this is this is there are also tickets just for the show so everybody can go but this money the extra money goes to helping the children that's exactly right and so what number do they call phone number at the nation well everyone can go to the  w dot org good web site it will be very easy to pop up immediately for you to follow the links and to purchase or to and you can also and you can call the foundation directly three six six five five seven eight perfect or evening like this again and we will have jim back just very shortly to talk about more programs that the foundation are doing because of course we're talking about this huge sarasota bayfront planning organization that's correct and we will get into that at a further length when we're not so quite this close to the barry manilow extravaganza i think it's wonderful when everybody has an opportunity to to make a memory and to make a difference thank you actually do thank you jim and congratulations on your new job i appreciate that thank you so much and we'll be back in a minute at the van ways though did you know city of sarasota drinking water is very safe tested every two hours delivered right here it's much more affordable than bottled water environmentally friendly and it taste good city of service soda water safe affordable environmentally friendly  everyone likes a well groomed landscape and whether you do it yourself or hire a landscape crew remember to keep your lawn and garden debris from ending up in our bay and water city ordinance prohibits blowing long cuttings and leaves into streets which ends up in storm drains and then straight into our bay there they decompose and turn into nitrogen which could lead to algae blooms and red tide in order to protect our bodies remember to blow all lawn cuttings back into your yard where it will eventually decompose into use fold nutrients or cool old school and sweep it up and dispose of it properly cuttings aren't the only danger to the base trash and other contaminants can reach the storm drains which also in danger's the bays ecosystem so go on enjoy your beautiful yard but don't blow it when it comes to our  give them a little you know you buy the chance and we have the little card i said here you go one of your christmas presents but it's a beautiful car it's right outside all its words right now and if you don't like white apparently they'll switch to co yeah but i'd think about driving a jag oh my gosh but anyway let's talk about some more shows there's a little known singer coming oh yeah i've never heard actually you've mentioned tool about a thousand and one you're going to feel my heart throb when i was a teenager this was it for me oh my ago he sold in the the booth like one of his green guitars and then if you paid x dollars just so you know the theater gets none of the money from any american you know you got to meet him well course i got to meet him anyway because there was no way i was not going to that meet and greet to see rick springfield which of course working class dog and going to talk to strangers and the thing is i make fun because he's so gorgeous and so you know what a teenage heartthrob but but he when he plays that guitar he is like he really you know he's amazing and we take the whole front row seats for why do at least at least and of course he was starring on general hospital and all these t v shows but but what let me let you see for yourself rick springfield mar that what you do make you to buy the second row for my wife and i wonder if dr so it was going to show a little i don't know but i can tell you during my college years i would not book any classes during the three o'clock hour when they were on television but anyway now one of the sad things for me was i tried to get phantom of the and sang some of the phantom songs while they skated out but it's all these these great guys that have actually started on broadway as the phantom and i'm sure we're going to have some solos and it's more ted but i think we have a little video right  wonderful and he's just a gentle nice nice nice guy i mean i've been back stage when he's had his family there and really great he even let me hold his violin once so that was really what is called the official site where ever you go to a theater or to an arena to buy tickets make sure it says the official site because over and over people buy tickets on the secondary right sellers  protection is just go right to your box office there's people in that box office every day ready to help you and you save on a lot of fees when you do that as well but as you can see we are so busy at the van ways that we have so many people coming so many great acts and we'll see you next month