MORGANTOWN — Two local agencies forged a partnership to bring free entertainment and social opportunities to community members. Recently, those agencies have had to navigate temperamental weather and a worldwide pandemic to reach their goal.
Mylan Park and Mon Health System first implemented their Movies Among the Mountains program last summer, right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic’s steady increase in prevalence in the United States.
The program is a summer-long one that offers community members a wide range of films, from classics to cartoons, at no cost to those who choose to attend a Movies Among the Mountains event.
Mylan Park Director of Aquatics & Track Jennifer Lainhart said that Mylan Park was looking for activities that it could hold outside because of the health and safety concern of being in small spaces during the pandemic. Mylan Park also has a large digital board at its track, and administration had been considering running movies on it for some time.
Then, Mylan Park came into a partnership with Mon Health for a couple different reasons, though one of the ideas Mylan Park pitched was the Movies Among the Mountains program.
It had been Mylan Park’s hope for a while to bring some sort of free movie event to the Monongalia County and Morgantown-area community.
The program is held in a scenic section of Mylan Park, where visitors have access to uninhibited views of the mountains around them, hence the title of the program.
“It was really an effort to get people out, doing things when they hadn’t been able to do things, and we were able to do it in a socially distanced way,” Lainhart said.
Initially, masks were not required to attend the program once individuals were the appropriate social distance from each other, though they were required up to that point.
This year, the program kicked off in early June. Its opening event was supposed to be held Memorial Day weekend, but it was canceled due to bad weather.
Lainhart said that is one stipulation of the program — if the weather isn’t agreeable, the movie will be pushed off to the following weekend. Since the program is scheduled to show a movie every other weekend, there is some wiggle room left for administrators to make that choice.
“We can’t really run it in rain or thunder, that kind of thing,” she said.
Last year, coordinators were thoroughly pleased with the community participation in the Movies Among the Mountains program.
This year has been different, however. The weather has been less than ideal, and the COVID-19 pandemic seems bent on sticking around for a while longer. The program hasn’t seen quite as much participation this year as it did in its kickoff year.
Lainhart isn’t extremely worried about this yet, though.
“I think the beginning of the summer is always a weird time because people have so much going on with graduations and end of school,” she said.
Lainhart said that Mylan Park and Mon Health have enjoyed being able to hold and sponsor something for the community that’s free of cost.
Mon Health Executive Director of Marketing & Communications Kristina Adrian said that partnering with Mylan Park to offer free programs and movies to families in the area aligns with Mon Health’s mission to enhance the health of the communities it serves.
“This event provides a healthy and safe environment for families and friends to spend time together and enjoy a night out with a fantastic lineup of movies throughout the summer,” she said.
As previously stated, the event is completely free to attend and does not require registration. Vendors and concessions are occasionally available, though coordinators recommend that attendees bring their own snacks.
The only thing that attendees cannot bring is a pop-up tent, like those used for camping.
A movie showing will take place every other weekend through Aug.21. The next, billed as a date night, is set for July 10. The movie has yet to be announced, as the public will take a vote. I
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