SRO Screening

Flew in today from our screening in Woonsocket and as I expected, I was deeply moved by the entire experience. First, the venue: The Stadium Theater, built in 1926, has been beautifully restored to its original gorgeous design and boasts a sound system that rivals the sound of any major movie theatre in the country. There are only 4 full-time staff members - the entire operation runs like a well-oiled machine with the help and support of about 200 volunteers. And what phenomenal folks they all are! Other companies could learn quite a few things from the customer service provided by the volunteers and staff in this fine Theater. But this is just one of the many incredible experiences from this weekend.

The coincidences: The story behind the story of Lost in Woonsocket includes many coincidences that kept pushing the momentum, even when odds were stacked against best intentions. The filmmakers turned off the freeway because they thought "Woonsocket" sounded like a cool name for a city. On the way to detox, the guys found Normand "by chance" in a parking lot after looking for him for several hours. The crew found a local barber on the way to detox who "happened" to be a recovering alcoholic himself, 27 years sober. And the list goes on.

And I got to experience it myself....Before the credits roll at the end of "LIW," the epilogue explains that Normand is over 12 months sober and that Mark had slipped and had been in and out of detox 5 times since the A&E series ended, and had returned to the streets. Pastor Brian Souza of the Matthew 25 Center of Hope had heard that Mark was intending to come to the screening and the consensus was that if he came, he would most likely have been drinking and would make a scene. Frankly, nobody knew where he was going through detox and if he was even going to show up at the screening at all. And then God winked. On Friday, our first full day in Woonsocket, our first order of business was to go to the theater and meet the delivery of the projection equipment. After waiting for several hours, we did what any normal group of people would do with some spare time on the east coast - we headed off for the local Dunkin' Donuts for some coffee and donuts. But, even though Woonsocket is a small town, it has one-way streets that don't run parallel and after 20 minutes, ironically, we found ourselves lost - Lost in Woonsocket! So we stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts down the street from the Theater - not even the original store we had been in search of and as we came out of the store, who should we see standing out front? MARK! He had been in town only 20 minutes from detox and he was clean and committed to attending the show Saturday night. And he did! To a rousing standing ovation at the end of the screening.

The event: The screening started at 7:00 in front of a standing-room-only crowd of more than 1,100. The marketing campaign led by Alan Neville and his team at Crossroads resulted in several newspaper articles and local news pieces, leading to a successful sell-out. The crowd was anxious and abuzz, their expectations for a great show pushed to the limit when news leaked out that Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy was in attendance. Alan Neville and Pastor Brian introduced the evening and invited John onto the stage to welcome the crowd and kick off the show. The audience reacted warmly to the story, laughing and crying in all of the right places. At the end of the show, John came out on stage with Pastor Brian, Joe the Barber and the new local celebrity and focal point of the movie, Normand Cartier. The crowd gave Normand a standing ovation and another when he pointed out his family, standing from their front row seats. And still another when Mark was invited to join the crew up on stage.

We sold over 150 DVDs, collecting several hundred dollars for Crossroads and Matthew 25 Center for Hope. Those sales, along with ticket sales and donations, helped make this a tremendous fundraising effort as well as a true community event. Overall, it was a magical night! Thank you, Woonsocket family, for kicking off this humanitarian movement with your generosity, love and support. I couldn't have predicted this kind of experience when we started this adventure 3.5 years ago.