Dear Menlo Park and local Peninsula movie enthusiasts, I want to thank all who signed the online and at-the-theater petitions to Save the Guild Theater, and the volunteers who provided support and encouragement. The volume of signatures – more than 4,000 – from lovers of indie, foreign, art and vintage films at the Guild, and from preservationists for small neighborhood theaters throughout the U.S (many of whom are former residents Menlo Park and of neighboring cities on the peninsula), has been inspiring. Comments from signers demonstrated a strong appreciation for the Guild’s current program of films provided by Landmark Theatres and for the role of small theaters in the entertainment and cultural life of communities. Although the Guild’s building is not of historic landmark status, it has provided a social and cultural focus for the Menlo Park community for more than 90 years. This function is important to maintain as a new proposal for use of the property is working its way through the city's approval process. The primary focus of the non-profit Peninsula Arts Guild (PAG) proposal to renovate/rebuild on the site of the Guild is to create a venue for live entertainment. But the PAG proposal also includes a strong interest in providing community benefits, such as meeting space for community groups and school-sponsored events, facility rentals, and speakers’ series AND a stated priority to include films and film festivals in their programming. We are now organizinng a local planning/discussion group to focus the concerns and activism of independent film lovers in making specific proposals to the Peninsula Arts Guild for regularly scheduled film and fim arts events at the new venue. Drew Dunlevie (President of the PAG) has encouraged us to form just such a group to suggest and help plan a successful approach to this goal. Developments in film distribution, big-screen “home theaters,” video-on-demand, and early release of movies to video distributors are driving changes in the industry and the survival of older single screen neigborhood movie theaters. Creating a successful community-centric theater film venue at the new Guild will require hard work, dedication, and creative planning and scheduling. We can’t save the old Guild as exclusively a movie theater, but we can participate in giving its core functions a new life at the new Guild. Will you volunteer to be part of a community group to help set the course for film at the new Guild? We’re reaching out to our local Menlo Park and broader Peninsula communities to form a diverse and representative group of those interested in independent film to help set the course for an exciting “niche market” for independent, foreign, and arts film at the new Guild. We need your suggestions and particulalrly your active involvement if you can come to our meetings (time and place still to be determined). CONTACT US DIRECTLY BY EMAIL TO saveguildtheater@yahoo.com so that we can get started! This message to our supporters has already been circulated in our local communities through nextdoor.com and independent film clubs and MeetUp groups, but we need to reach those of you who live locally and may not be part of those common interest groups. If you are involved in other social media, this is a great time to post information about our project and help us find local SF Bay Area and Peninsula residents who can represent independent and arts film interests in this critical local project. We need to start now, while the Peninsula Arts Guild is proceeding with permitting and construction plans. Once the work begins at the site, we will lose the movies at the Guild for a time, but we will work to find interim locations for film events until the Guild is “reborn.” Be part of a local group working for a future for film at the new Guild. Contact us at saveguildtheater@yahoo.com! Thanks to you all! Judy Adams petition organizer