![]() ![]() “We’re going to be posting up every Thursday night from 5:30 to 7:30 giving out bags full of treats, candy, popcorn, and surprises. This year, the event will still be virtual, but Chicras has found a way to bring back some of the elements of community engagement. Everything from the food trucks to the affordable snacks to trivia games and fun prizes. “It’s beautiful and it brings people together. “This is one of my favorite things that I get to do in Seattle,” said Block. While the 2020 event was a success in providing access to movies, delivering valuable information on how libraries can be used to stream movies for free, and allowing the outdoor cinema to continue without skipping a year, there was still a vital element missing - community engagement. “Maggie helped us figure out how to use the library’s free streaming resources and to let folks know they could stream movies from home without having to purchase, like, a subscription to Netflix or something like that.” “We partnered with Skyway Library, their teen services librarian, Maggie Block,” Chicras says. ![]() The importance of this event led Chicras to another option - a virtual version of the outdoor cinema that would partner with the library. Besides playing movies for neighbors and entertainment for children, the event was also a place where community organizations met to discuss important issues and people living in the community connected with each other, and the organizers often provided valuable education on voting. Shutting the event down was hard for Chicras to imagine. And at that time, we were just kind of learning about the shutdown and everybody thought it was only going to last couple weeks.”ĭue to the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020, the Skyway Outdoor Cinema was faced with the possibility of not hosting an event for the first time since 2003. Normally, the community votes on their movies in April. “In 2020 we were like every other organization, trying to figure out what we were going to do,” Chicras explains. The event was a huge draw in the Skyway community, and Chicras and Goebel spent a series of successful summers running the event until the 2020 shutdown. They added food trucks, people in costume to entertain kids, balloon twisters, and face painters. By 2019, the events would draw over 500 people. When Chicras and Goebel stepped in back in 2013, expected attendance was under 100 people for each showing. Under their leadership and partnership with the West Hill Community Association, additional community partners, and a few sponsors, the Skyway Outdoor Cinema was better than ever.įor seven years, the event saw steady growth. We bought all of our own equipment after doing an Indiegogo campaign.”Ĭhicras’ and Goebel’s efforts not only saved the outdoor cinema, they revitalized it. “So we jumped in and, having no real event-planning experience, learned everything from the ground up, from getting vendors to buying AV equipment. “Myself and my partner, Mary Goebel, decided that it was something too valuable to the community to just let it just discontinue,” Chicras says. Knowing how valuable the event was to the community, Chicras stepped up to ensure the outdoor cinema continued. ![]() At that time, the organization was discussing whether to shut the cinema down due to lack of volunteers and declining community attendance. Their weekly event, Skyway Outdoor Cinema, which hosts outdoor movies on a 20-foot screen every Friday in August, has been a staple in Skyway every summer since 2003.ĭevin Chicras, a West Hill Community Association board member since 2014 (and president of the South Seattle Emerald board), has been actively involved in the Skyway Outdoor Cinema since 2013. ![]() The West Hill Community Association has an extensive history of advocacy and community service in the communities of Skyway and Unincorporated King County. ![]()
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