The Heart of Effingham

09/12/2026

Cruising through the Effingham Vintage Cruise Weekend

09/12/2026

Come see us at the Farmer’s Market!

We’ll be here with our fundraising shirts for sale, so stop by, say hello, and grab a shirt to support our cause! ❤️

09/11/2026

25 years later, we still remember. We remember the lives lost, the families changed forever, the first responders who ran toward danger, and a nation that stood together.

09/11/2026

🎬 🎥 HEART MOVIE TRIVIA TIME!
So you think you know movies? Prove it!

Let’s play Complete the Movie Line

The clues are:

🏝️A remote island
🚙 A park where everything goes very, very wrong

Comment your answer down below!

09/09/2026

Thank you to the Effingham Performance Center, our neighbors at our favorite Effingham Public Library, and Arts Alliance Illinois for bringing the Illinois Creative Future Roadshow to Effingham today!

We were grateful for the opportunity to join other artists, arts organizations, community leaders and supporters in a conversation about the future of arts and culture in Illinois — and the important role the creative economy can play in communities like ours.

Thank you, EPC, for hosting this important conversation in Effingham. We’re excited to keep dreaming, collaborating and working toward a vibrant future for the arts in our community. ❤️🎭

09/06/2026

Our case study with Bloomerang is now published! ✍️

We recently had the opportunity to meet with the Bloomerang customer advocacy team and share how we're using their donor management CRM at the Heart Theatre.

Bloomerang helps us manage our growing donor database, track donations, communicate with supporters, and stay organized as we work toward our mission of bringing the Heart back to life. It was exciting to discuss what we're building, what we've learned along the way so far, and how technology is helping us create a strong foundation for the future.

For a young nonprofit like the Heart, choosing the right CRM is incredibly important. We need a system that is easy to use and also gives us the ability to grow with it as our organization's efforts grow. We spend less time figuring out complicated systems and more time focused on our mission.

A young, all-volunteer theater nonprofit turned to Bloomerang CRM to build donor relationships from the ground up ahead of its first capital campaign.

09/01/2026

🚘 The Heart is ready for Cruise Nights! ❤️

If you’re cruising through downtown Effingham on September 11 & 12, be sure to cruise past the Heart Theatre and give our old marquee a wave!

We love seeing downtown come alive for Cruise Nights—and we’re looking forward to the day when the Heart is once again lit up and welcoming people through its doors as part of nights just like these.

Until then, we’ll be right here cheering on the cars, the community and all the fun downtown.

Who’s coming to Cruise Nights? And more importantly…what are you driving? 🚗✨

08/31/2026

🎬 🎥 HEART MOVIE TRIVIA TIME!
So you think you know movies? Prove it!

Let's play name the movie! The clues are:

💇‍♀️ Big hair
🏢 An office
☕ Three women
☠️ Poison
💼 A boss who needs to learn a lesson

Which movie is it?

A. Steel Magnolias
B. 9 to 5
C. Sweet Home Alabama
D. Joyful Noise

Comment your answer down below

08/27/2026

Congrats, friends! ♥️

Well we did it! Thank you who all came out! And we DEFINITELY wouldn’t have made it through without our morning Fox Holler lattes! Great start and finish to the day!

08/26/2026

One of the best parts of bringing the Heart Theatre back to life has been discovering just how many people have a connection to this building. ♥️

We hear from people who remember seeing their first movie here, couples who went on dates at the Heart, former employees, families with stories passed down through generations, and people who simply remember what it felt like when the marquee was glowing downtown.

And sometimes, those connections surprise even us.

Next month, we’ll have the very special opportunity to welcome two granddaughters of the architect who designed the Heart Theatre to Effingham. They’ll tour the building and see firsthand the work their grandfather created more than 80 years ago—work that is still standing and waiting for its next chapter.

These are the moments that remind us that preserving the Heart isn’t simply about saving bricks, plaster and an old movie theatre.

It’s about preserving stories, craftsmanship, memories and connections between generations—while creating a place where entirely new memories can be made.

If you have a Heart Theatre memory, photograph, ticket stub, story—or a family connection to the building—we would love to hear from you.

Because every time someone shares another piece of the Heart’s history, we understand a little more clearly why this place matters. ♥️