THE National Lottery Awards for All scheme has announced that Bude Community Cinema (BCC) has been awarded a grant of £7,678 to buy their own projection equipment.
The BBC Chairman Janine Everett said: "This is a great boost for us. We have been fortunate in being able to use the equipment belonging to Carn to Cove (Cornwall's Arts Touring Scheme) but that involved a time-consuming round trip to and from Redruth, so this is marvellous news.
"We were told a couple of weeks ago but have not been able to share the information until the official press statement was released. Needless to say we've been impatient to pass on the good news."
Janine is also looking forward to announcing the good news to the audience at BCC's film evening tomorrow (Friday) when they show 'The Chorus' at the Parkhouse Centre in Bude.
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BCC has one slight worry however as the value of sterling has fallen by over 20 percent since they applied for the grant, which means that the equipment has gone up in price as it comes from overseas.
On April 17, last year, the 'Post' first reported a group's hope of getting a film society started and the man behind the initiative, John Gimson, was responsible for co-ordinating the grant application.
He said: "After what seemed a slow start, I think we can be pleased with what we've achieved. Carn to Cove came along at just the right time and got us started with the first five films, and now we've six more planned. We also have a proper structure for BCC, a membership scheme, and now the good news of the successful grant application. These are sound measures of progress.
"When we started, we used the caption 'Friday is film night in Bude'. Looking forward, I'm beginning to wonder if one film a month is going to be enough. With our own projection equipment, we have scope to develop. If we can build up more support there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to have another team to run film evenings on say a Tuesday or Thursday, and there is a huge choice of films."
As reported recently, BCC announced their film programme for the period from March to August 2009 and details can be found on their website http://www.budecinema.org.uk">www.budecinema.org.uk together with details of their membership scheme.
Another piece of good news is that since reporting last month that BCC were in need of a Publicity Officer, they've received an offer of help from a Post reader who expects to be moving nearer to Bude shortly.
However, Janine added: "We could always do with more volunteers so we don't put too much of a burden on to the same few people."
If you can help, or want to know more about BCC, contact Janine on 01288 354256.