In an effort to renovate the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium Community Theater, the city of Chattanooga Education, Arts and Culture wants citizens to vote for the project to win a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant to complete the first phase of renovations.
The grant is vote driven, so EAC officials encourage the community to join in and vote up to once a day now through Jan. 31 online, on Facebook and via text messaging.
“Vote as many ways as you can now through January 31st,” said EAC Administrator Missy Crutchfield. “It’s about our military, veterans and our city. And it’s time that we all stood together to complete something started a long time ago.”
She said combining the $300,000 monetary donation from Mayor Robert Kirk Walker’s administration with the Pepsi Refresh $250,000 grant would fund paint, carpet, seats and Americans with Disabilities Act bathrooms in the theater.
“It’s about a building that represents what this country stands for … it represents freedom, ” she said. “The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium was erected Nov. 11, 1922 on Veterans Day.”
She said despite lack of funding available at present, there is still work to be done at Memorial Auditorium.
“This county and city needs to be stepping up to help veterans,” said Crutchfield. “We’ve been at war for a decade now.”
She said she envisions living history inside Memorial Auditorium involving showing movies about wars like “Pearl Harbor” and “Gone with the Wind.” She said she plans to display war memorabilia in cases in the auditorium in the future.