ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 30, 1996 TAG: 9612310004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
If you altered "The 12 Days of Christmas" for First Night Roanoke, this would come after mimers miming and pinatas bursting: "Sixteen firefighters rappelling."
City firefighters will spend New Year's Eve working their way down the side of the Church Avenue Parking Garage. To opera music. With spotlights.
This is not the first time they've performed for the city, though it is the first time to opera music.
``It's good opera music," said Wendi Schultz, executive director of Festival in the Park, which puts on this event "It was the music they played during the helicopter scene in 'Apocalypse Now.'''
As long as the music and firefighters get started at the same time, everything should come together just fine, said Station 2's Capt. Audie Ferris.
His group will perform at 7:30 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m. Some of the rappelers will go on to participate in the city's sixth annual First Night. Others, including Ferris, will report back to the station for duty.
This year, the events at First Night will be in a concentrated area along First and Second streets and Church Avenue. There will be more events for people of specific age groups, too.
Right after the new year, Schultz and her crew meet to discuss what they could do better for the next First Night. "One of the things folks told us was they would like somewhere to go that was alcohol-free but just for adults," Schultz said. Thus, First Night introduces big band music and a casino for grown-ups only at the Community Building.
But if you have something for grown-ups, you also should have something for families with real little kids, Schultz said. And so there will be bubble gum buddies and finger puppets in Playland, at the Downtown Learning Center.
As usual, First Night will feature performers for everybody - stilt walkers and magicians, jugglers and comics, singers and puppeteers. There will be a scavenger hunt and a sock hop, miniature golf and face painting.
And you'll find your old favorites: carriage rides, iceless ice skating, the Midnight Run at 10 and the spaghetti supper at St. John's Episcopal Church.
This is the third year the church is host to the supper, which will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Proceeds will support construction of the church's community center, which will be modeled after the West End Center. The plan is to set up an after-school program for "kids at risk," and it should be ready next year, said Frank Allen, associate rector of St. John's.
Starting Tuesday afternoon, some 30 volunteers will gather to prepare enough spaghetti, sauce, bread and salad for 200 to 300 hungry people.
"The hardest thing is trying to figure out if you should cook the spaghetti ahead of time or pace yourself and just keep cooking spaghetti," Allen said. Then again, "the hardest part is too many cooks."
Musical acts will perform in the church sanctuary at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., but Allen said he's already promised church members he'd have a few television sets around the fellowship hall in case they wanted to watch Virginia Tech play in the Orange Bowl.
First Night started in Boston in the 1970s and since then dozens of other cities have personalized it for their own New Year's celebrations. The only rules: it has to be alcohol-free and it has to be a celebration of the lively arts.
This year, 169 cities will hold First Night celebrations - up 50 from last year.
Attendance at Roanoke's festivities has grown over the years and last year about 10,000 people brought in the New Year at the event. Of course attendance usually depends largely on the - and Schultz drops her voice to a whisper when she says this, so as not to jinx anything - weather.
That's one force of nature that Schultz, armed with her pen, pad and cellular phone, cannot control.
Janet Sachs, who spent four years in charge of the dragon used in the candlelight procession at First Night, recently reminded Schultz of another, namely, the mice that nested in the dragon's head last year.
Schultz and Sachs promptly evicted the little critters and rebuilt the dragon in Sachs' garage. (A few later went on to find a home in the hood of Sachs' husband's car, but she says this is not the reason she has passed the title of Dragon Lady on to another volunteer.)
The dragon spent this year surrounded by pie plates to scare off any homeless rodents, and will be in fine form for the annual jaunt through downtown Roanoke.
If you expect to be in fine form, too, wear extra layers of clothing: many of the booths for First Night are outside.
First Night buttons can be purchased in advance for $7 ($3 for kids 2 to 12) at 7-Eleven, Kroger, Heironimus, Save-X Mini Marts, NBC Bank, Member One Credit Union, Stop-In, NationsBank, Computer Wizards Co., the YMCA, The Roanoke Times, WDBJ 7 and the Roanoke Festival in the Park office. Buttons can be purchased at the event at all entrances.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Stilt-walkers (above left) will be part of Firstby CNBNight. 2. David Van Derveer (above) will perform jugglingi, comedy,
trick shooting, magic and other "fearless airbourne conjury. color.
3. Doug Berky (left) combines clowning and miming.