SportsMarch 19, 2013

Lewiston Civic Theatre, a Lewiston-Clarkston fixture for nearly 50 years, will be recipient of net proceeds from the 36th annual Seaport River Run in 2013.

Profit will go to Acting Out Youth Company, the theater's children's program, which includes six weeks of youth programming during the school year, a summer production and presentations by youth at senior centers and retirement homes.

The 2013 run and walk will be at 10 a.m. April 27, starting at Clarkston's Swallows Park and ending in Lewiston's Hells Gate State Park. It is the valley's original run-for-fun and had 1,216 participants in 2012, 1,283 in 2011, 1,109 in 2010 and 1,306 in 2009.

Six weeks remain for participants to prepare for the 2013 event, part of the annual Dogwood Festival of the Lewis-Clark Valley.

Some 125 to 150 participate in the youth programs, Beth Larson of Clarkston, executive director of Lewiston Civic Theatre, said.

"These children are the future of our theater," she said, "and many graduate to the next level."

Annie Jr. will be the Civic Theatre's youth summer production, having a two weekend run and eight performances in the first two weekends of August. It will be the third year for a youth on-stage production.

"The young people learn so much and are so responsible," Larson said, "and it's a lot for the kids to do."

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Actors will range in age from 8 to 15. The Seaport's proceeds will be used in part to help underwrite the rights to the musical, which will cost $2,600, incidental costs of the production and provide $100 scholarships for children whose families cannot afford to pay enrollment.

Mel Syverson is the theater's youth director and, Larson said, "is amazing with her kids."

In addition, Syverson has a school year six-week program that consists of actors' public showings and monologues.

Lewiston Civic Theatre began in 1964 and presentations were first at the Porthouse Theater, located in Lewiston along the Snake River and old Lewiston beach. The small theater frequently was beset by water damage from the river's flooding, before dams and slackwater. Since 1972, the theater has been in the historic Bollinger Performing Arts Center at 805 Sixth Ave., which had housed the Lewiston Methodist Church since being built in 1907. The first production at the Bollinger was "The Me Nobody Knows."

Proceeds of $4,000 from the Seaport were given in 2012 and 2011, last year to the Lewis-Clark Quilts of Valor and two years ago to Family Promise of Lewis-Clark Valley, a nonprofit interfaith hospitality provider for families in need. In 2010, $3,000 was given to the Lewis Clark Neptunes Swim Team to purchase equipment.

Some $113,000 in Seaport River Run proceeds has been distributed to organizations, mostly those with youth programs, in the last 35 years.

The 2013 Seaport River Run will again have walking and running routes of 2.9 miles and 6.2 miles. Entry forms are available at regional sports stores and athletic clubs and at Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department in the Lewiston Community Center.

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