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SOLOMON VALLEY CINEMA PART TWO; BRINGING THE IDEA TO LIFE

 

Bringing the Idea to Life

By Terry Bailey

 

In our last report we took a look at how the idea of a local community cinema came about. In 1991 Sharon File’s friends had friends visiting from out of town. The visitors were looking for a family oriented activity to attend but found Beloit had little to offer. File share this dilemma with fellow members of the Chamber of Commerce in passing conversation and off to the races they went.

The original committee of five was composed of Sharon File, Carol Tolbert, Wayne Ronnenbaum, John Cashatt, and Guy Steir. It soon became evident that fundraising would be a full time job. Errol Schafer and his wife Dolores were recruited to spearhead the fundraising part of the job. Schafer and his wife had operated the local Coast to Coast store for many years and were well versed in the business side of a business. Fundraising is a business so it stood to reason that a businessman would be what they needed. The committee of five became the committee of seven.

Schafer said, “I do not want to sound melodramatic, but we had the same conviction that Kevin Costner had in the Field of Dreams. We truly believed that if we could build it, people would come.” With the theater preparing to celebrate its twentieth anniversary, it would appear that is exactly what happened.

We also had a strong conviction,” said Schafer, “that people in the city of Beloit and in the surrounding area would dig deep and give to a worthy cause such as this. We also knew that they wouldn’t run in with a box of money and hand it to us but if we asked and gave people the opportunity to give, they would. The Mitchell County Foundation was founded at this time to allow for tax deductible contributions.”

When asked about the name for the theater Schafer responded, “From the very beginning we intended for this to be an area-wide undertaking. We never viewed it as a ‘just for Beloit’ project. We knew that young folks and adults from the surrounding towns were looking for suitable local entertainment. Solomon Valley Cinema seemed to be an appropriate designation.

Schafer said, “We had two ‘Call-A-Thons.’ We sat down and just started calling people. We wanted to offer everyone a chance to help. Almost everybody supported the idea of a modern, clean local theater when asked which confirmed our original belief in community support. We did have a small number of nay-sayers who told us they would not donate to a dead end cause. They said theaters were a thing of the past and our project would never get off the ground.”

We solicited donations for an auction. People were generous in their giving and the auction netted several thousand dollars. The Katherine Werts family donated a large number of classic movie posters. We organized an auction in Salina and made several thousand dollars. We contacted all our local civic groups and their gifts were very substantial. The “buy-a-seat” endeavor gave people a chance to give and get a little recognition with a name plate on “their” chair.

When we first started working on the cinema project we wanted to have all the money in hand before starting construction. We didn’t want to get started and run out of money. After many months of successful fundraising, we decided that we needed to start building so that folks could see that their donations were resulting in tangible results.

The group borrowed $70,000 to secure adequate funds to finish the theater building and all the fixings. The note for this loan was paid off in five years once again showing the support the theater received form the community.

While some gave money, many others gave their expertise. Dennis Lutgen donated the land for the theater. Terry Collins installed the heating and air conditioning. Dick Wise was the general contractor who got the outside shell of the building erected. Steve File and John Cashatt spent a lot of time getting the building built.

Sonic Sales Theaters from Iola, Kansas was a great source of information about the movie theater business. None of us had any movie theater experience and Sonic Sales gave us critical advice and kept us heading in the right direction.

The project had over 200 volunteers from across the area. Some people helped only once. Some donated over 4,000 hours of their time. The electrical students at the Technical College were very helpful. When they left at the end of the school year, Randy Paxon took over and the work progressed without a hitch.

When the theater first opened the movie brokers were very cautious about assigning first run movies to a theater in a small market. After several months of successful operation, those doubts disappeared due to the strong community support.

Schafer added one final comment, “I am sure that the new remodeling will require another fundraising activity. We appreciated the generosity of the community back when we got it off the ground. I am sure the current project is worth everyone’s continued generosity.”

After years of Wednesday morning meetings at the 24/66 and almost a year of construction work, the Grand Opening of the theater was fast approaching.

 

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA