To pull this off, our hardworking team is working hard to find some new recruits!

Where we take our theatre is limited not by imagination but by human resources.

With weekly movies, private rentals and special events on the horizon, we are reaching out to our community to find a few more community members interested in joining our team. We have an active website, facebook page, and regular contact with our local media, all of whom are sponsors.

We are looking for experienced individuals who can help us:

• Designing posters, membership cards, our website and other graphic design needs
• Shape the vision of the theatre
• Reach out to the community and our members through surveys and polls
• Post regular blog articles to help tell our story and share our visions
• Maintain our events calendar and work to promote our regular, fundraising and special events
• Help us with branding and best practices
• Bring some new ideas to our team!

If you have marketing experience, graphic design experience, web development/implementation experience, or just lots of energy and a love for our project please let us know!

As a non profit organization we are focusing our search on community members interested in volunteering for this great project – help us build the theatre our community wants!

With your help we hope to build a large enough team that we can minimize individual time commitments and keep people focusing on the areas of marketing they are most interested in and passionate about.

If you are interested in joining our team, please email me with a brief summary of your experience, interests, and why you think you would make a great addition to the Nelson Civic Theatre Society.

Thanks in advance,

Roger, Project Manager

Nelson didn’t yet roast its own coffee or brew its own beer. Its artists hung work in alleyways long before there were galleries. You might hear music on Baker Street, a single voice reaching for the top of Elephant Mountain; now, there’s a street musician on every corner.

Nelson folks wanted their own radio station, so we started one. We wanted an art school, so we started that, too. When the mill closed, Nelson pried off slapped-on 1950s facades and made a new future by celebrating the past.

Nelson is angsty and tooth-gnashy and some days it feels like we can’t do one thing without controversy. But that’s the thing about Nelson: everyone cares.

Just one year ago a group came together to save our 1936 movie theatre when it looked like it might be gone forever. We agreed on this: that a movie theatre is for everyone. It’s good for kids and teens and families and seniors. A movie is a first date, a good laugh, a safe night out, a shared experience. It’s good for the economy, and it’s good for the community. A movie theatre was worth saving.

That ad hoc group became The Nelson Civic Theatre Society. The road was at times angsty and tooth-gnashy, but fundamentally, everybody cared. By October, we had more than 1,200 members, and the keys.

The theatre had been dark for three years, half-gutted and permeated with the sad smell of stale popcorn. The old 35mm projector might have been run by hamsters; the mono speaker had an underwater sound quality. The seats lay in dusty stacks on the old stage.

We cleaned up. At an open house, people sponsored seats, then installed them. We tweaked until picture and sound were tolerable, then packed the house with folks in gowns and tuxes and the occasional wetsuit for the James Bond movie Skyfall.  Which is when we asked: how much do you really want a theatre?

Nelson is fundraising central: a house fire, a sick child, or Guatemalan refugees all open wallets. Need a CT scanner to avoid long waits and mountain roads? Roll out the campaign. It’s not that other towns don’t do this stuff. It’s just that there are 10,000 people in Nelson, a million things to save or support or build. And somehow, we do.

After this year there will be no more print films made. For the Nelson Civic Theatre, it was go digital, or go home. A lot of independent theatres across Canada were opting for the latter, but by now there were 1,800 members and 400 volunteers—who weren’t about to go home.

Two months. $150,000. Digital movies by summer. 10,000 people in a mountain town. Could we do it? You could hear the machine click into gear; Nelson was ready to roll.

Last night we held a press conference on the steps of the Nelson Civic Theatre. Everyone wanted to know: did we make it? $150K is no chump change.

The final tally: $181,425.00

Safe to say, we’ll have a movie summer. Sure, there’s a ways to go before this project is complete—and we’ll get there. For now, raise a glass, butter your popcorn, and sit back as the house lights dim, and the screen comes to life.

We’ve got it all in Nelson. We’ve got a community for whom a gauntlet thrown is an opportunity to make perfect just a little bit better. We’ve got friends working together, and in the process, making more friends. We’ve got a tremendous amount of goodwill.

And all around us: mountains, lake, and a sky with a curious propensity for double rainbows.

On behalf of the Nelson Civic Theatre Society, I wish to thank everyone in Nelson, our surrounding communities, and abroad who has helped with our project’s continued success.

Anne DeGrace
President NCTS

Nelson Civic Theatre Society project manager Roger Ley announces the results of the group's Community Challenge, with the help of the board members standing behind him. A total of $181,425 was raised as of May 1. - Bob Hall photo

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Civic Theatre Society spokesperson Roger Ley looks back as the final tally is unveiled during Wednesday press conference. — Bruce Fuhr photo

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Come by the Civic Theatre’s front steps today at 5:30pm to hear the results.

I’m bursting with anticipation.

We can’t say enough about this community.

Thank You. See you at 5:30!

Well… while I’m dying to tell you, the truth is that the cheques are still rolling in–plus, it only feels right to create some suspense and drama. This is a theatre after all!

The Nelson Civic Theatre Society will formally announce the total amount raised this Wednesday, May 1st at 5:30pm on the Civic Theatre’s front steps–and you’re invited.

Can you wait a few more days?!

We’re also pleased to announce that in a show of appreciation and support for the community’s efforts, The Martin Hotel Group has pledged to match up to $5000 of what we raise past our $150,000 goal!!

All donations we receive during the remaining 3 days of the campaign that take us past our $150,000 goal will go directly towards our next development stage.
The adventure is just beginning!

I’m anxious to see what the final tally will be!
But for now we have to wait. The drum-roll’s just beginning…

See you Wednesday!
Roger
P.S. There’s still plenty of time to sponsor a seat and make a donation before our Community Challenge deadline on May 1st. See you at the Theatre on Wednesday night!
P.P.S. Yahoo.

We are very pleased to announce that we can now issue tax receipts for online donations and seat sponsorships!

Through cooperation with the City of Nelson, you can now sponsor a seat or donate to our project online and have a tax receipt emailed to you.

With your generosity, we’ve raised almost $140,000 of the $150,000 we need for digital conversion, with just a little over a week to go in our Community Challenge. Wow.

Here’s your chance to get your name in lights (that is, on our donor wall) and be part of a Community project that’s truly for everyone. If you’ve picked up a donor form or been thinking about it but just haven’t got around to it, now’s the time.

Of course, donations of any size are welcome, and can be dropped off at the Civic Theatre or Nelson City Hall or mailed. For full info on how to donate and how to get a tax receipt, click here.

It’s exciting, it’s inspiring, and it’s essential–because the future is digital, and with 2013 the last year for print films, the future is now!

Is this seat taken? Please–sit down!

Get comfortable with a community theatre that’s here to stay.

What Clint Eastwood has to say about the NCTS Community Challenge!