Gatchell to shepherd in a new era and welcome Leddy Center to a new home
November 13, 2008
It didn’t matter that her stage looked very much like her family’s porch when it all began for Elaine Gatchell.
She was all of 8 years old in those days back in Winchester, busy writing shows, gathering the neighborhood to be in then and attend them, having her mom and her sister serve popcorn and Kool-Aid to the patrons.
Sensitive to the fact that her mom had suffered a detached retina before she was born, and was blind for a year, she displayed, even at that young age, a giving heart.
Gatchell earmarked all proceeds from her porch productions for the blind.
Flash forward to the 1970s and Gatchell’s founding of what was to become the Leddy Center for the Performing Arts in Epping. In honor of the occasion, her mom gave her the original box of pennies and nickels that was meant for the blind. She had written a check for the amount and mailed it to blind charities but kept the box all those years for her daughter.
Gatchell took it as a positive omen and yet another reminder, she said, that “giving back to the community was the way to go.”
Read the full story, including the news of the Leddy Center’s new home from Ryan Alan
Also see the new Leddy Center website.
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