The Post Theater is looking for volunteers to continue showing movies

The White Sands Missile Range Post Theater is looking for volunteers to continue showing movies for the WSMR community.

Aubrey Candelaria, point of contact for the Post Theater, said that right now they only have a team of three volunteers and one of them is leaving.

Ideally, they would like to have a team of volunteers where each volunteer would only have to come once or twice a month. In order to do that they need at least ten volunteers.

“That would be great, and it would alleviate a lot of the burden,” Candelaria said. “The more volunteers we have the more showings we can do.”

Candelaria said the Post Theater is one of the only things on base that is 100 percent community based, community run and free of charge to its customers.

She said it is all about giving community members a place to go, especially during the summer.

“It is fun, we have an air-conditioned building, and we can accommodate everyone,” Candelaria said. “This is an incredible resource for military families here on post.”

Candelaria said she has been volunteering for the Post Theater since it reopened in 2016.

“They needed something for the community to do on the weekends and the garrison commander at the time decided to invest in the Post Theater,” Candelaria said. “He stepped in to update the sound equipment and the projector.”

Candelaria said she was volunteering in various places at the time when she got tagged to volunteer at the Post Theater and has been doing it for the past eight years.

She calls herself a Marine brat and said that once her dad got out of the Marine Corps the family moved to Denver, Colorado. Her husband is from El Paso and that is how she ended up moving to the area.

Garrison Commander Col. Don Mozer said the Post Theater is especially important for a small installation like WSMR.

“This is one of the programs we provide at no charge for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and their families as an extracurricular activity,” Mozer said.

He said the Post Theater is great entertainment for kids and adults and they can show current movies free of charge.

Mozer said volunteers are crucial to the operation of the Post Theater.

“Our theater is run by volunteers, and we rely on those volunteers to operate the theater,” Mozer said. “In order to keep this going we need the help of volunteers, so we are really making a big push for volunteers to help out at the theater.”

“The more people we can get to volunteer the less time they have to invest. Even if they can only volunteer once or twice a month that is a tremendous help to maintain this program.”

He said the Post Theater volunteers also work with organizations on post to accommodate movie showings as part of their programs.

Candelaria said they follow a yearly schedule for movies.

“We have a regular showing every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, and we can do special showings on Friday nights,” she said. “If we can get more volunteers then we can offer more showings. We just need the people to be able to be here to run the equipment.”

Candelaria said volunteering at the Post Theaters is an easy task.

“You show up, you count how many people come on a clicker, you turn on the player and push play, then you go downstairs to watch the movie,” Candelaria said. “Once the movie is over you help clean up because there is no janitorial service.”

She said they have brooms and dust bins and volunteers sweep up crumbs, lock up and leave. You don’t need any prior experience or any certifications.

“So, you get a good three to four hours of volunteer hours just for watching a movie.”

Right now, they don’t have an official concession stand. A volunteer has been donating sodas and popcorn. It is donation based.

We love to have parents, and kids volunteer as a family. Both parents and kids can earn volunteer hours.

Depending on the facility schedule they are open to special events for organizations on post.

They do ask for 30-day notice for special requests and it does have to be a movie showing event. They have over 400 movie titles available.

For request you can email the post theater at wsmrposttheater@gmail.com