design: David Olsen
Fletcher McCusker built a multimillion-dollar corporation in the spaces between powerful institutions. The native Tucsonan is CEO and co-founder of Providence Service Corporation, a health services company that offers health care without the beds - matching services to client, community and politically devised programs.
It may then come as no surprise that McCusker is a proponent of the entrepreneurial spirit, a private-sector-to-the-rescue kind of mentality. Or that he wasn’t so keen on funding a renaissance of entertainment in a government-dominated downtown from his eastside offices.
But McCusker reconsidered the idea, suggested by a band of business-minded do-it-yourselfers. Then he agreed to fund the plan at $5,000 a month for a year and to move his corporate offices onto newly revamped Scott Avenue, into an old-as-new, brick facade remodel across from the planned Tucson Electric Power headquarters.
McCusker is behind “Second Saturdays,” a retouched Downtown Saturday Nights event that will stretch along Congress Street from Church Avenue to the Fourth Avenue Underpass and is set to begin May 8, running from 5pm-10pm.
The event includes a large committee: Luke Cusack, operator of Sapphire, Zen Rock, A Steak in the Neighborhood; David Slutes & Victoria Falcone-Camey, Hotel Congress; John Flanagan, Flanagan’s Celtic Corner; Michael Keith, The Screening Room/Downtown Tucson Partnership; Nicole Flowers, Travis Reese of the soon-to-open restaurant 47 Scott; Beth Dell, Beowulf Alley Theatre, Donovan Durband, Ward VI Office; Huna Hammond, Event Horizon Productions; Danielle Leines, Strongpoint PR; Jamie Manser & David Olsen, Zócalo Magazine; Erika O’Dowd, Cinema La Placita; Randy Peterson, KXCI; Julie Ray, Julie Ray Creative; Cara Rene, Downtown Tucson Partnership; Mia Schnaible, The Screening Room and Monica Surfaro Spigelman, Tucson Cowgirl Communications.
“It’s a private-sector initiative,” McCusker said. “No crazy government involvement.”He said the organization has been an unparalleled exercise in downtown accord. “It’s the first time there’s been agreement all the way down Congress.”'
Headlining the event is the Portland Cello Project at the Fox Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., joined by Howe Gelb. Restaurants, bars and stores in between will hold special events. There will be street music, art and vendors, but Second Saturdays will be different from its previous incarnation in its emphasis on bringing people inside downtown venues, McCusker said.
Visit 2ndSaturdaysDowntown.com for the full line-up of music and how to participate as a musician or vendor.
