About 350 Northern Lights, Inc. (NLI) members gathered at the Panida Theatre in Sandpoint last Saturday to celebrate the 84th annual meeting of the cooperative, which was the first rural electric cooperative west of the Mississippi.

It turned out to be a hand-clapping, foot stomping trip down memory lane. The Sandpoint High School singers put on a show with songs from the ‘50s, which kept the audience engaged, laughing and singing along with the high schoolers as they remembered their own high school days. The Albeni Falls Pipe and Drum Scottish bagpipers, in full red plaid kilts, followed the teenagers marching up and down the aisles to the delight of the crowd.

Not to be undone, NLI board president Steve Elgar regaled the crowd with his comedic visual presentation of the State of the Cooperative, with accurate documentation of the financial situation accompanied by hilarious pictures of employees in the throes of doing their jobs.

NLI CEO Annie Terreciano filled in the spaces visually, showing all the progress NLI has made throughout its history.

Many NLI members came for the door prizes. Each member who signed in received a $25 reduction on their electric bill; the grand prize winner received a $250 reduction on their bill. Two winners each won the energy credit from one of two NLI Solar panels. The big prize of the day was a a flat-screen TV.