Titanic Remembrance Dinner Theater was a success

BELEN — World-renowned actress Van Ann Moore fascinated 135 guests in an interactive, two-act dramatization of the life of Titanic survivor, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” at the First Baptist Church Belen.

“Raising the Titanic once again and bringing her to the Hub City of Belen through my rendition was a monumental experience for me as well as the audience,” Moore said. “Living up north for 16 years, I fell in love with some of the heroines of Colorado Rockies such as Baby Doe, Tabor “The Silver Queen of the West,” and Molly Brown, “The Unsinkable Heroine of the Titanic” herself.

“It gave me great satisfaction to see my audience Saturday night enjoying Molly Brown’s life story as much as I do!”

Moore has worked with UNM and performed around the world. (To find out more visit vanann.com/)

Attendees of the event dressed up and some drove long distances, ranging from Los Cruces to Rio Rancho, to attend and even included the granddaughter of a Titanic survivor.

To make the evening more personal, upon arrival, each guest received a personalized boarding pass sporting their own name alongside the name and bio of a Titanic passenger.

Throughout the night, guests were invited to check out the Wall of Names to discover whether their passenger survived or died in the tragedy.

The local group bringing history to life for the community is the Rio Grande Federated Republican Women (RGFRW). The civic group meets once a month to find ways to inspire, educate and better the Rio Grande valley community.

As the largest donor to the Belen Baby Box at $2500, this Republican women’s group stayed largely in the background in order to keep divisive politics away from the need to support and unity for such an important project.

“We believe the Baby Box and its help hotline, 1-866-99BABY1 offers options and hope for women and infants in our community. Seeing it come to life was more important than politics,” said Stephanie Guerrero, who serves as a member of the RGFRW board as well as the children’s minister of First Baptist Church Belen.

In addition to the Belen Baby Box, the RGFRW supports local small businesses and gives awards to Women of Worth (WOW) who are contributing to the community.

Other RGFRW 2025 projects include: “Wreaths Across America” (the laying of wreaths on our veterans’ graves), the Flag Project (respectfully retiring worn & torn flags from our community and turning the stars into gifts for our living veterans), cooking and serving in Santa Fe at the Roundhouse for the Valencia County Day (for all our legislators and the governor) and much more.

Their latest project, which the Titanic event helps to fund, is the Mamie Eisenhower Literacy Project. Named for the former first lady, it is directed toward literacy in the community.

The RGFRW looks forward to continue blessing the community and may offer another historic production this fall.