Hello Scarecrow Supporter!
It’s been a couple of months since the last update, and that’s largely due to the fact that we have continued to be extremely busy in the very best of ways. Without further ado, let’s get caught up with where things currently stand.
The $75K match challenge has now been met, and that means we have passed the $600K mark - a third of the way to our goal! Since this campaign began, we’ve received over 5,000 donations and memberships from film lovers in forty-eight US States and at least seven countries. This is a whole lot of love for Scarecrow, and we are so grateful for all of it. We’ve also had some community members take it upon themselves to raise money for Scarecrow, so an extra debt of gratitude to:
Pickford Film Center in Bellingham for their benefit screening of BE KIND REWIND.
Corey J. Brewer and the folks at The Beacon Cinema for their benefit screening of THE CAT & THE CANARY with a live score by Brewer.
Scarecrow alum Alex T. Thomas and The Beacon for their benefit screening of How to Watch a Movie with: ROCK-A-DOODLE.
Daniel Hickey from Seattle Horror Filmmakers, Eric Morgret, Director of Crypticon Seattle Film Festival, and SIFF Egyptian for the sold-out benefit screening of HAUSU.
Everyone who put together a Facebook Fundraiser for Scarecrow: Amie Simon, Andi Dexter, Brady Daley, Brian Rosenquist, Carlos AF Lopez, Chrys Palmer, Craig Rogers, Damon Gaynor, David Philips, David Reise, David Shepherd, Derek Stout, Diana Knauf, Dyare Purdy-Castillo, Elizabeth Katheryn Gray, Jake Gallo, Jeff Rauseo, Jesse James // Rocket, Jesse Van Hoy, Jo Louie, Jordan Alexander, Justin Robert Vinall, Lacey Leavitt Gray, Lynn Erickson, Mark Sebring, (Meg) Ghouls Only Press, Mimi Noyes, Monty Hathaway, Sabrina Nickels-Begley, sarahnotsarah, Semih Tareen/Seattle Turkish Film Festival, Seth BeastMeat, Skarrlett Krow, sophia p, Steve Strout, Steven Darko, Stewart W, Susan Merrill and Tersa Gavlinski.
With the money raised so far, the Board has been discussing how best to invest it in Scarecrow’s future. One piece of exciting news is that we will be able to stay at our current location. We will be extending our lease for at least two more years and with lower rent!
Additionally, we are now exploring what possibilities there are for us to fill the two executive leadership positions. If you know of anyone who might be interested in either of these roles, they can learn more here. This is a critical step forward for us and represents the start of the process to lay the cornerstone of the foundation on which to build Scarecrow’s future.
Aside from the campaign, another huge benefit has been the ~60% increase in rental and sales revenue. Scarecrow supporters have taken to heart the need to utilize this magnificent collection and the other resources we have to offer. The hope is that this will not be short-lived and that once again we become a regular part of our patrons’ lives. This increase has a direct benefit to our staff who are now back to working at their full capacity.
Being a third of the way to our total goal means that we still have a ways to go. The love and enthusiasm of our supporters like yourself has buoyed us along, and we continue to feel confident we can reach this goal. We have a number of things yet to come this year that we are positive will continue the momentum:
International Video Store Day on Saturday, October 19th. This is always our busiest day of the year, and we are feverishly planning for the best Video Store Day party ever!
Scarecrow is extremely honored to be named an Icon of Film by the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). The award ceremony will take place at MoPOP’s Icons of Pop Culture Gala on Thursday, October 24. For more information about this event, you can visit https://mopop.org/icons.
The holiday season is upon us, and some of our very creative staff members and friends of Scarecrow have been working on bespoke items that should make for unique gifts – for yourself or other film lovers in your lives. The unveiling for most of these items will be on Video Store Day.
This update has a lot of numbers in it… we’re 1/3 of the way to our goal…rental and sales revenue is up 60%...we will be adding over 9,700 new titles to our collection…and staying in our building for at least two more years. But Scarecrow isn’t about numbers; it is about people – the people who are cinematic storytellers, the people who are caretakers of these stories, and the people who understand the importance of physical media and of Scarecrow’s role in keeping them alive and available. It’s about you.
Your support has helped to bring us to this benchmark, and if we all continue to work together, we will succeed!
With gratitude,
Kate Barr
Executive Director
