The Artist Reception and Awards show on Friday night was centered around one person, Manu Sood. This year’s Arts of the Terrace Art Show was dedicated to the woman who leaves behind a legacy of arts and service in the Mountlake Terrace community. Speakers, including Manu’s son Nalin, gave loving tributes about Manu Sood and what has been done to remember her since her passing in 2009. Many of the women staffing the event wore Manu’s traditional clothing to remember her colorful presence.

Around 200 people gathered at the MLT Library Friday evening. Artists, former and current City Council members and members of the community gathered to open the 32nd Annual Arts of the Terrace Juried Art Show.

Tonight, Saturday October 2, there is a wine tasting and silent auction to benefit the Manu Sood Art Scholarship Fund. Tickets are only $10 and entertainment will be provided by the critically-acclaimed Mountlake Terrace High School Jazz Combo. The even goes from 6-9pm.

Below is a tribute in Memory of Manu Sood from the Arts of the Terrace program.

It is now, humbly, our honor and privelage to pay tribute to someone whos selfless dedication to the community she loved would prevent her from ever seeking personal acolades for herself. We dedicate this year’s Arts of the Terrace Juried Art Show to Manu Sood.

Born and raised in Mbale, Uganda, Manu and her husband Vic Sood settled in Mountlake Terrace. Manu enjoyed working for the Native American Education program in the Edmonds School District in the 80s. She discovered a passion for painting.

Manu Sood, who passed away in 2009, cared deeply for her family, friends and community. She served on the Mountlake Terrace Arts Advisory Commission for four years from 2005 through 2009, which complimented her passion for painting. Manu also was very active in the Mountlake Terrace Garden Club. Her husband, Vic Sood, serves on the city’s Planning Commissiona dn her son, Nalin, teaches at Mountlake Terrace High School.

Manu enjoyed traveling, spending time with grandchildren, and watching her son coach the Mountlake Terrace boy’s basketball team. Manu lived her life as a daily example of how to treat others and what to value.

After her passing, the family crated the Manu Sood Mountlake Terrace Arts Commission Scholarship and in 2010, the first scholarship was awarded to Mountlake Terrace High School senior Alex Herbig. The Endowment supports an annual scholarship targeted for arts students in the amount of $1,000.

“We are very pleased to award the first annual scholarship in hoor of Manu and in conjunction with the Arts Commission,” said the Sood family. “Alex’s selflessness, work ethic, appreciation and talent in the field of art are all characterisitics of what she wazs all about. We all know she is somewhere smiling and proud of Alex receiving the award.”

In the true spirit of volunteerism for which she served, it was her love for her community that supplied the only reward she shought. Yet, although never seeking the limelight, it is people like Manu, with their unselfish civic-mindedness, who help form the heart and soul of ourt community.

She shared a common vision that recognized the importance of the culutural arts as the cornerstone for buliding a strong community. Seeing the arts as inseperable from the human spirit, she perveived it as meAns to connect a diverse community. She saw the arts as an essential element in forming the city’s own special identitiy and contributing to its overall vitality and self-confidence.

Just like the old Masters, Manu put her stroke on the canvas to unveil a beaitiful legacy in the continuing and combined work on th eMountlake Terrace Arts Commission as it strives to build and strengthen the cultural arts in the city.

Without devoted citizens like Manu, many towns would simply be a place on the map, confined within their own boundaries. Instead, their labor of love helps communities exceed their own limitation.

More than just help a city function, citizens like Manu enable it to flourish and improve itself. They help a town break its own bonds to venture forth, seeking to continually build a better sense of community an quality of life.

The Arts of the Terrace Arts Show lasts all weekend and it is all free with the exception of the wine tasting and silent auction. Free workshops will be given by local artists so be sure to stop by the MLT Library this weekend.