{"id":36731,"date":"2025-08-21T15:14:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36731"},"modified":"2025-08-21T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:15:01","slug":"murder-mystery-aims-to-be-fun-way-to-fight-food-insecurity-support-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/murder-mystery-aims-to-be-fun-way-to-fight-food-insecurity-support-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder Mystery aims to be fun way to fight food insecurity, support youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Orient Express.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rue Morgue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manderley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All scenes of notable fictional murders \u2013 and now Aurora Town Square is set to join this esteemed list as Marquee Theatrical Productions and the York Region Food Network team up to transport ticket-holders to Transylvania where a murder is set to take place this October \u2013 but rest assured it\u2019s all for a good cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 17, Marquee Theatrical Productions and the York Region Food Network will join forces for \u201cA Halloween Murder Mystery,\u201d a dinner theatre fundraiser supporting both organizations\u2019 work in support of youth arts and in combatting food insecurity within the local community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interactive evening, which is set to unfold in Aurora Town Square\u2019s Performing Arts Hall, will showcase a murder-mystery staged by Marquee with a three-course dinner provided by Seasons, the York Region Food Network\u2019s (YRFN) fundraising catering service featuring locally-sourced delicacies prepared by Chef Maxine Knight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea to host a murder mystery fundraiser came following a similar murder mystery event staged by Marquee benefiting the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joanne Witt of the YRFN was in attendance at that affair and knew a similar collaboration between her group and Marquee could pay dividends not only for each organization, but the community as a whole \u2013 and provide a bit of fun at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe event was on a Saturday night and I was in Sheryl\u2019s office Tuesday morning,\u201d says Witt, recalling her first meeting with Marquee founder Sheryl Thomas to brainstorm ideas. \u201cBoth of us are such great collaborators; it\u2019s always fun to do stuff like this with other people. It\u2019s going to raise awareness for both of our organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once they had landed on an initial concept, Thomas sourced the script and brought the acting ensemble together. She\u2019s mum on most of the plot, but teases that it\u2019s set in a Transylvania hotel during the spookiest time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheatre is a magical, magical art,\u201d says Thomas on why fundraising \u2013 and awareness-building \u2013 events like these are important to an organization like Marquee. \u201cA lot of people think, \u2018Oh, you just teach acting and a little bit of singing and dancing and stuff over there,\u2019 but people don\u2019t really understand that that\u2019s just the vehicle that we use to teach youth in the community \u2013 youth from four to 18 \u2013 life skills. From the process of putting on a musical, it teaches them so many life things like time management, working as a team, responsibility \u2013 and ultimately it all helps to build their confidence and communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCommunication is a huge piece. We have had many a kid that comes here, perhaps with a learning disability or autism, on the spectrum, whatever it might be. Sometimes they’ve been non-verbal. By the end, they’re actually saying a few words and they’re okay doing it on a stage. That’s massive. Every kid’s got their own journey, and so even sometimes just that little inch is massive to that family, or that child\u2019s life. Theatre just changes lives, but not only does it do it for the kids, we do adult productions as well and it enriches the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witt adds that while they\u2019re eager for this event to showcase Chef Maxine\u2019s creations, every dollar raised will help make a real difference in food security challenges throughout York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re an organization that receives no consistent government funding,\u201d says Witt. \u201cWe fundraise for 100% of our budget. We’re now over $1 million for our budget. When I started at this organization three years ago, our budget was $500,000. We’ve more than doubled what’s going on in the organization, and that’s because one in five families in York Region is struggling with food insecurity. That’s huge, and that includes over 30,000 children in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity to promote the programs and services that we offer just to make sure that everybody knows what we’re doing so that if they are struggling, they can come to us and we can help them. If they know somebody who’s struggling, they can come. We always have had great partnerships with the food banks because we service the same people, but the food banks do their thing and people struggling with food insecurity need more than they can give. That’s where an organization like ours comes in and has all of these other programs and services for that same group of individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets for A Halloween Murder Mystery are on sale now at marqueetp.com.
In addition to ticket sales, both Marquee and YRFN are seeking sponsors and donations to their silent auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those interested in helping can reach out via the same link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orient Express. The Rue Morgue. Manderley. All scenes of notable fictional murders \u2013 and now Aurora Town Square is set to join this esteemed list as Marquee Theatrical Productions and the York Region Food Network team up to transport ticket-holders to Transylvania where a murder is set to take place this October \u2013 but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9yr","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 18:56:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36732,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36731\/revisions\/36732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}