As the North Bend Theatre approaches its 75th year in business, Valley Record readers have voted theater owner Cindy Walker as the top store owner.
A resident of the Valley for more than 15 years, Walker has been the owner and operator of the North Bend Theatre for almost 10 years.
“I’m pretty humbled,” Walker said. “It’s been a great experience because it’s a business that allows me to be involved in the community and that’s what I’m passionate about. It’s given me a great vehicle for that.”
The North Bend Theatre has been a Valley landmark almost 75 years now and Walker said she sees herself as the steward of the building.
“We really have always seen ourselves as stewards of this part of the community, this is really the community’s theater,” she said. “It’s the theater that people value and cherish in the community. It’s fun keeping that alive, when we have opening days of ‘Star Wars’ for example, there are a lot of places you could see it, but we saw so many people, we were packed for a month.”
The theater also allows Walker to connect with and be active in the community. Walker said the new movie release part of the business attracts specific demographics, but through holding community events in the theater and allowing organizations to hold events there, Walker is able to bring a much larger group of people to the theater.
Within the past year the North Bend Theatre has been a venue for local election forums, multiple film festivals and a Relay for Life rally.
As the owner, Walker has taken care of everything from the finances to the popcorn, but in recent years, she has developed a strong operational staff to help with the work.
“Most of the work that I do is behind the scenes. I worked really hard to put together an operational staff and elevated the manager role in the theater,” she said. “I do networking, the chamber luncheon, train board, King County Historic Commission, I also keep my hands on the books. Managing the financial aspect of the business and community outreach is what I do.”
Of course, with a building that’s been in use for 75 years there is structural maintenance to be done as well. Walker thanked 4Culture for the help in maintaining their historic landmark.
“We had to replace all three furnaces in the building. It’s those kind of things where we really work. There are structural issues of dealing with a 1941 building,” Walker said. “4Culture has helped us with supporting the brick and mortar aspects of keeping the place running. When we needed the new roof we got a generous grant from 4Culture, most recently we were rewarded to replace our front doors. They deserves some recognition for supporting the theater.”
