CRIVITZ – A couple hundred folks came together on Sunday, August. 18 at the Crivitz Community Veterans Park for a ribbon cutting and concert at the new Bob Berndt Theater.
The bandshell, a $250,000 upgrade for the park, already flush with amenities like the John Shaffer Pavilion, a playground, a softball diamond and a disc golf course, was made possible through donations coming in from individuals around the community, as well as businesses and grant funding.
“We talked about the need for a bandshell,” said Village President John Deschane. “It started over here with just a black stage that the band sat on. We said, ‘Crivitz needs to do better than that,’ so the idea was born and it grew into this.”
Named after Bob Berndt, longtime Crivitz resident, educator and co-conductor of the N.E.W. Concert Band, which treated the crowd to some melodies before Daze2Nights, a local variety band, closed things out; the new bandshell is already slated to host a half dozen events beginning next spring.
“I’m very shy around a microphone and I don’t talk a lot,” Berndt, surrounded by his family, said to the crowd before the N.E.W. Concert Band took over. “But this is just so humbling for me. I’m still alive, and my name is here. Which is so awesome. I had such a passion to put something in my community, this is my community, Crivitz is my community. This is where I grew up. This is where I learned how to love people.”
Berndt added that he also learned to love music in Crivitz, making the dedication of the park’s newest addition in his name all the more appropriate.
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