Little Kodi Cummings had a fistful of popcorn and a widescreen smile. The 11-year-old boy from the Jane St.-Finch. Ave. area plunked himself down in a row of leather beanbag chairs with two buddies yesterday at a new community movie theatre donated to locals.

Sitting in groups atop a converted indoor pool, dozens of North York residents joined the boys for the premiere of the free screening room and activity centre, one designed to boost community safety for kids just like Cummings. “If I’m in here, I’m not out there getting beat up,” he said, alongside friends Thomas Asante and Eugene Salani, both 11.

Cummings then flashed a grin to suggest he was just kidding, but his comments weren’t exactly far off why the San Romanoway Revitalization Association and Cineplex Entertainment joined together to launch the project. “This neighbourhood certainly has a reputation and it’s not always fair,” SRRA chairman Kevin Green said. “But we want to change that from the ground up by giving kids things to do … when they get bored, that’s when things go wrong.”

Green told a roomful of community members about the SRRA’s plan to use the theatre space to host dance groups and other youth programs. “We want to use this as a motivational tool for our young ones to build their selfesteem,” he said. “Going to the movies and other things are normal for other communities, and we want to breed that kind of normalcy here.”

Former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall arrived at the theatre room yesterday morning to show her support. “I’m just thrilled. I think people here are going to be proud to be a part of this,” Hall said. Cummings and his two friends ran between their front-row seats and the popcorn machine as they caught a showing of Hairspray.

Asked what else he had planned for the last week of summer vacation, he said: “I’m going to be here the whole time.”