By Dessa Bayrock (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 21, 2012
What happens when you mix three UFV students, a UFV professor and a SFU Criminology major?
A plan to save the local theatre.
The Paramount theatre in downtown Chilliwack hasn’t shown a movie in years, but a variety of community groups have been fighting to save the old building.
But despite efforts from several volunteer teams, the Paramount was finally slated to be torn down earlier this year, and demolition was scheduled to start sometime in the month of November.
Last month, in a final push, a couple of UFV students decided to step up to the plate in a last-ditch effort to save the theatre.
Megan Davies, an English major at UFV, says the idea evolved after chatting with a couple of friends.
“We wanted to see if we could do something about it. So we did,” Davies says, describing how she and a couple of UFV students joined forces with a UFV professor and an SFU criminology major to form UFV Students to Save the Paramount.
Together they came up with a business proposal to transform the empty building into a youth community centre. According to group member and SFU criminology major Sarah Gillis, opening the building again for this purpose would also help reduce crime in the area.
“The Yale area [is] the number one hot-pocket for crimes of opportunity in Chilliwack,” Davies says, summarizing Gillis’ side of the plan. “If there’s more lighting on, or there are lights on around the area, they’re less likely to break into a car or get that purse.”
The group quickly put together a plan to raise awareness – a combination of flash mob, protest, and drive-in theatre.
They handed out flyers, sent out press releases, and gathered a group to watch a movie projected onto the side of the old building this past Sunday.
Davies says about 30 people took part in the event, but many more drove by and stopped to ask what all the action was about.
“It was kind of wet and cold, so I understand that not a lot of people wanted to come out,” Davies admits, “but it was kind of neat because there were a lot of people that drove by on Yale Road and didn’t know about the protest.”
The team chose to screen Modern Times, a black-and-white film starring Charlie Chaplin.
“Charlie Chaplin was a big advocate for going against social injustice and economic injustice,” Davies explains. “I picked that one because it came out after the depression, and it focussed on the factory worker versus the factory owner . . . which I thought really paralleled [the situation].”
Davies admits the plan to save the space was extremely last-minute, but says the plan could be fulfilled in some other downtown location even if the Paramount is demolished.
“We’re going to come up with a plan for an alternative area,” Davies says. “A lot of people still feel like there can be a good community in that downtown Yale area, so we’re going to . . . support the historic buildings that are still there.”
The group plans to hold another movie night this Sunday, November 25, assuming the theatre is still standing. Davies says that the building has been gutted of chairs and furniture, and crews could start tearing it down any day. Even so, the group plans to use the space as long as it’s around.
“A lot of people that came were really excited, and really just enjoyed having that nostalgia moment,” Davies says. “Even if this doesn’t deter them from demolishing the building, it’ll still create more of a sense of community in that area.”
