On Monday, Sept. 16, the Eastern Utah Economic Summit was held on the Campus of Utah State University Eastern. As a part of this, the Business of the Year award was handed out, with this year’s recipients being Richard and Wilma Snow, owners and operators of Roosevelt Theaters. Following this incredible achievement, Castle Country Radio talked with Wilma Snow about what the award means to her, the Roosevelt Theaters’ origins and advice for young entrepreneurs.
Opening up our conversation, Snow, who is originally from Elmo, Utah, talked about her experiences growing up in Castle Country. “I was raised as Wilma Johanson. I’m from Elmo, Utah, and I graduated from Emery County High School. I actually attended the college in Price when it was the College of Eastern Utah, and got a degree there. My husband is Richard Snow from Orangeville. He was drafted into the Vietnam War, so we’ve lived all over the world, but we were excited to be moving back to rural Utah when we decided to start a business.”
The Snow’s operate three theaters within Duchesne County, the Uinta Theatre, the Roosevelt Twin and the Echo Drive-In. Snow first talked about how she and her husband acquired the theater. “ The Roosevelt Theatres have been open, particularly the Uinta Theatre, for 150 years. I wasn’t born then, maybe a little bit later, but we bought an existing business because entertainment and movie theaters have always been a very important rural part of Utah. People need to relax and have a little bit of stress relief. But we have owned the business for 26 years, and we’re excited about it, and we like it, we especially find the drive-in very fun.
Snow also talked about what she enjoys most about running the Theaters,” The favorite part is the people, the customers, and the young people that I hire. When you have a business in a rural area, you get to know the people and the people get to know you, and you become a part of their lives. And I hire a lot of teenagers to help me with the candy counters, and I like to train them so that they can go on to do other jobs.” She continued,” And it’s really fun to see them, how they learn, and encourage them so that they can go on to be bigger and better.”
One unique requirement for the student workers at Roosevelt Theaters is they must maintain a good GPA. Snow discussed this saying,” If their grades drop, I don’t fire them. I take them off the schedule until they can get it up. And when they see they’re losing their little paycheck, those grades come up very fast.”
Our next topic was what it felt like to receive the Business of the Year award from U.S. Rep. John Curtis. “ We were extremely honored and, you know, full of gratitude to receive this. We feel that any time a business can operate in rural Utah, everybody deserves an award … We were honored. And the fact that Congressman John Curtis presented us with a flag, Richard being retired military, that meant a lot to him. It is also important that Utah State University Eastern sponsors this because it is a way for small businesses to get information and to network so that we don’t feel like we’re just out here all alone.”
Snow also left young entrepreneurs with some words of wisdom,” I would tell them to get a business plan, evaluate and then go. Don’t hesitate, because there are a lot of opportunities and a lot of chances to grow in rural Utah … there is always a need for businesses in small areas, and we need to get those so that we can be self-sufficient and survive. You can’t get everything from someplace else.”