Civic center and the arts improve all our lives.

Ashe County is fortunate to have organizations like the Little Theater and the Arts Council to come together and cooperate for an institution like the local Civic Center.

Ashe County commissioners have been wise to support the groups and the center.

It is somewhat unique in small communities to have such active arts groups and a forward thinking county board.

The board saw the benefits of the collaboration in helping support expansions to the Civic Center.

Volunteers, who worked on the effort were celebrated last week for their years of hard work, people like Maude and Bernard Calhoun. We say people like the Calhouns because they are standout among the volunteers, but successful efforts like the civic center don’t come about by the work of one or two people. They are good examples of what it takes.

It takes hours and years of consistent work by planners, stage actors, prop pushers, floor sweepers grant writers and many others.

Among the benefits is a center that brings the community together. The Civic Center here is not just a place people come to see outside acts. It is a place that actors and musicians from right here meet and work together and laugh and pull their hair out together to make an Ashe County effort.

The Civic Center is a good looking facility and polishes our image with professionalism. That helps us in our receptiveness in the rest of the world. People take notice of the building and the programming going on at our little Civic Center.

That is good for greater economic development and also puts money in the pockets of a few restaurants and other small businesses around here.

The center helps educate us all in the arts and in life. The recent performance of “The Music Man” taught us with local voices -- voices we would listen to -- to look for hidden talents. The character the Music Man couldn’t play a note on any of the instruments in the band he stumbled into creating. But he could make people believe in the possibilities and thereby improve themselves. He found his talent and helped the people of a town find their talent.

That is an important lesson for us all n believe and work hard.