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Phillips Area Community Center going wireless

4 mins read
Winona and Bruce
Winona Davenport and Bruce Godin holding wireless microphones. The PACC is getting wireless microphones in a bid to improve local performances and town meeting events.

PHILLIPS – As part of its ongoing efforts to upgrade and improve the old gymnasium as an event and performance space, the Phillips Area Community Center has recently gone wireless – adding microphones without wires, that is.

Given the ample space inside the center, the PACC board feels that purchasing a few wireless mikes can make a difference, according to Chair Dick Matthews. The suggestion the PACC go wireless – at least partly – was the suggestion of board member Winona Davenport.

“She noted how much wireless mikes would simplify performances during our annual Phillips Follies,” Matthews said, “and also suggested they’d be useful at town meetings to make comments from the audience easier to gather, easier to hear.”

To that end, Davenport offered to spearhead special fundraising activities to make the necessary purchases and over the past year raised sufficient funds to make possible some basic acquisitions – including two hand-held wireless microphones as well as two lapel mikes to expand the PACC’s rudimentary sound capabilities. Together with an amplifier and speakers acquired by board member Larry Pinkham, as well as two wired microphones purchased two years ago, the recent additions expand the PACC’s ability to offer efficient and quality events at the center.

Over the past several years the community center has done much to improve the acoustical qualities of its space, which after all used to be, first, a repair shop for the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad and then, in the 1980s, a gymnasium for the high school. Those recent improvements have included window and stage curtains, sound panels on the walls, and room dividers. These have all helped sound quality, and the PACC’s board members have heard frequent comments from musicians about the good acoustics.

The PACC hosts an annual summer series of Celtic Concerts – with help from New England Celtic Arts – as well as providing a performance space for numerous local musical groups. The PACC has also been a venue for dance recitals and theater programs, an annual vaudeville show, Phillips school holiday events, private parties, memorial services and wedding receptions, annual town meetings, storytelling evenings, potluck suppers, a flea and craft market, and an assortment of other events as well.

Having a good sound system has been an aid in staging many of those events and the new additions, Matthews said, will do much to enhance the experience of those who use the facility, as well as making it possible for musicians, actors, and speakers to deliver quality performances.

The Phillips Area Community Center is a non-profit organization run by volunteers and supported by generous donations from the community and by ticket sales at selected events. Though in the past the PACC has secured some grant money, the bulk of its budget depends on the generosity of the community and the people who frequent its offerings.

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1 Comment

  1. Phillips Area Community Center is one happening place. We have presented many shows there over the past few years and the change they have made to the old barn is amazing. We have four Celtic concerts scheduled this season and look forward to working with them in years to come. Well done all.. You folks are amazing.

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