Business & Tech

Mahwah Family Reaches $125K Goal to 'Save the Ramsey Theater'

Kickstarter campaign to fund the digital conversion and re-open the shuttered Ramsey Cinema came down to the wire Monday.

A Mahwah family that started raising money to convert the Ramsey Theater to a new digital platform reached its $125,000 goal Monday, just hours shy of its fundraising cutoff.

Mahwah couple Laura and Dave Rose started an online Kickstarter campaign last month to raise the money need to convert the former Ramsey Cinema’s two theaters to digital. The duo needed to raise its goal amount by Tuesday morning in order to receive any of the money raised.

With only hours left in the campaign Monday evening, the Rose family posted to the Kickstarter site a blog post entitled, “Looks Like We Made It!”

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“I am extremely pleased to announce that with the online funding and the checks that we have received, that we have HIT OUR GOAL of $125,000,” the post reads.

“Thank you to everyone who has backed this program to help upgrade the two theaters to digital.”

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As of 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, 991 backers had donated $125,272 online to the project. Two individual backers reported contributing $5,000 each to the project.

Backers were promised perks in exchange for helping fund the conversion, like movie tickets, t-shirts, and tickets to a planned grand re-opening of the theater.

Laura and Dave Rose, and their business partner Karen Emmert - who all own Planet Swirl next door to the theater - say they are going to see the conversion through, and manage the theater once it is reopened.

Earlier this fall, previous theater owner Peter Vivian sold the longtime theater to Hala Alain, the owner of S.H.E. salon two doors down on Main Street in Ramsey.

Alain has said she hoped to use the space to expand her business, but agreed to lease the space to the froyo shop owners after a public outcry to “save the theater.”


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