A potential £1 million pledge from just 4% of people in Montrose has been described as yet more evidence of the community’s desire for a cinema.
The Montrose Playhouse Project embarked on its most successful event to date in the form of a DIY SOS style strip-out at the old pool in November.
Volunteers had helped save the project £250,000 and the team are now working behind the scenes to raise the capital funding required for the rest of the renovations which amounts to around £2 million.
Chairman David Paton said: “Once we have a commitment to capital funding from one or more source, we intend to raise the balance through a reward based crowdfunding scheme.
“In anticipation of this, we have carried out a two week survey of just over 500 respondents asking them what, if any, of our proposed rewards they’d be interested in with an indication of prices.
“These ranged from a ticket to the opening night at £30 or a brick in the Playhouse Wall of Fame for £50 all the way up to a main sponsor at £50,000.
“In the two week period we had ‘raised’ a theoretical £1 million from around 4% of the town’s population which is yet more evidence of the community’s desire for the facility.”
Local lads Graeme Thomson, Gary Jamieson and James Kennedy are giving the project a further boost by signing up for a 25-mile kiltwalk in Glasgow on April 29.
On June 30 Montrose Driving Instructors Association are holding their annual mock driving test fundraiser with all proceeds going to the ambitious project.
Mr Paton said: “The MDIA do this every year for a local charity as a way of giving back to the community whilst promoting good driving awareness.
“The entry fee is £25 for which you get a 30 minute mock driving test with a qualified driving instructor — and a cuppy and a cake afterwards.
“Full details are on our Facebook page.”
The aim of the project is to bring back a cinema to Montrose and create a cultural arts hub for the town and surrounding area.
In late 2012 the swimming pool on The Mall which had been the town’s only swimming pool since the 1950s, became surplus to requirements when the council created a new facility down at Marine Avenue.
The Playhouse team purchased the building for £1 last year after Angus Council deemed it surplus to requirements.
People can sponsor Graeme, Gary and James on the kiltwalk by going to https://glasgowkiltwalk2018.everydayhero.com/uk/graeme-9.
