Salem Theatre Board Chair Drew Johnson was shocked when 60 people answered the call to help remove the old seating from the theatre on Sunday.
The huge amount of support from both students and adults meant work that was expected to take until Thursday was finished in a few hours.
“At one point we didn’t have enough tools or jobs for people, but we all got into a flow,” Johnson said. “Luckily, several people who came had a tool bag in their car, and they went and got their own tools and started dismantling stuff. It’s surprising, but we got it done in about an hour and a half. Our goal was we really wanted to have at least half the chairs out by six o’clock today.”
Johnson says removing the seats turned out not to be difficult.
“We had a little bit of trouble right at the beginning just figuring out where you had to put a wrench and a pair of vice grips, but once you knew the process it was just a matter of repeating it 400 times.”
And with the seat removal done so quickly, even more work was completed.
“Volunteers had gotten so much done, they just jumped in and started scraping tile. They saw that that was what was next, and they wanted a job to give back. We sure appreciate it.”
Johnson says volunteers ranged from six to 82. They included a number of Salem Community High School students who could use the work towards iPad credits.
Johnson says getting all the work completed by volunteers has cut $20,000 from the cost of the project and also assures it stays on schedule.
The theatre will have to raise $150,000 to complete the renovation of the auditorium section of the theatre. Watch for announcements soon on that effort.
Volunteers work on scraping up tile after removing all the seating. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
Old seats ready to be hauled away from the theater. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
