KIRKLAND LAKE - Lights, camera, jackpot! A small-town theatre has struck big in a national competition.
Kirkland Lake's historic LaSalle Theatre secured second place in the National Trust for Canada’s The Next Great Save competition, winning a $10,000 prize.
Michael Rawley, the theatre's artistic director, still feels like the real winner today.
“I didn't think anybody cared about the theatre, really. So, when the voting took off, I was flabbergasted. I was like, Oh, my God, they really do care. They really love their theatre. It was surprising, shocking, humbling, moving; many emotions all at once,” he said.
“With this support we’ve received, we've already won. And the national profile we've achieved and the credibility that has been raised on our behalf because of this is incredible.”
The competition gives heritage advocates across Canada the chance to plead their case for $50,000 to help protect, adapt, renew and improve Canada’s historic places.
Located in Stephenville, Newfoundland, a wooden structured church dating back to 1925 won the grand prize.
In addition to the prize money won by the Kirkland Lake theatre in the competition, a local group called 100 Women who Care, built of female volunteers wanting to make a change in the Kirkland Lake region, have donated another $10,000 to the theatre.
SEE: First 100 Women Who Care meeting taking place in Kirkland Lake
The combined $20,000 will pay for a new roof, which they plan to have installed by the end of this fall, said Rawley.
LaSalle Theatre was built in 1939 and is one of the last four remaining streamline moderne art deco theatres in Canada. The others are located in Saskatoon and Toronto.
SEE: National competition win would boost theatre's credibility, says artistic director
RELATED: LaSalle Theatre continuing to raise money to keep its doors open
When the building was purchased in 2013, Rawley said they had a new roof mortgaged into the buying price, but the company didn’t do a proper job on it.
For Rawley, this is the year of the LaSalle.
“This is the year that it's all going to start really turning around and we'll be able to start achieving some really wonderful things,” he said.
“In this world where not much good is really happening all the time, to have something like this happen is like, okay, this is really great.”
Kirkland Lakers are resilient, dogged and stubborn in the best way, Rawley said.
“Maybe they’ve just never had anything to really rally for before,” he said.
