The Vashon Theatre has always created a balance between a business and a community gathering place. Eileen came to the theatre with the intent to save it as a community theater and has been extraordinarily successful in doing this. Vashon Theatre continues to keep the balance between screening first-run films, and community interests like theater, opera, ballet, concerts, talks and support for island non-profits.

One of the great stories of this bond between the theater and the community was GreenTech’s effort to raise donations to upgrade the theater’s projection equipment and the theater’s commitment to offering the Theatre to community nonprofits each Tuesday at no costs. This is an exceptional collaboration between the theater and the community.

Eileen’s legacy will be this collaboration with GreenTech while at the same time keeping the theater as a viable island business. No small task with the way the film industry has changed and the delivery of film entertainment has exploded into the online digital world.

Eileen’s greatest on-going accomplishment has been finding that balance between business and community that has cemented the Vashon Theatre role as a community asset. While small local theaters have been overwhelmed by multiplexes, and local theaters have closed all over the region, Eileen has been able to find a way to keep the Vashon Theatre successful and thriving.

—Bruce Haulman