I am a third-generation theater owner and operator in Vernal. My grandfather started in 1946. Our theater employs three full-time and 25 part-time employees, as well as maintaining a contract with a cleaning company that employs individuals with special needs. We are grateful that Sen. Mitt Romney’s office responded to our emails and asked further questions allowing them to understand and relate to our current situation. We are thankful for the Save our Stages grant program sponsored by Romney and appreciate their time and effort on our behalf.
So far the COVID-19 pandemic has given us close to a 90% loss of revenue compared to 2019. Like most businesses we have bills coming in, payroll, state-of-the-art projection equipment to maintain, property taxes and a mortgage to pay with little to no revenue/profit to cover the costs. Being a small mom-and-pop business, we are not able to bring in revenue like the big businesses and rely on new movie products to create profits. We are grateful this grant money is for small businesses like ours and thousands of others across the country. We will be able to retain our employees, hire new employees and be able to keep our doors open to serve the community in which we live.
We are thankful for the Save our Stages grant program sponsored by Sen. Mitt Romney.
Trevor Shiner, Vernal