Cachearts.org
PRESTON — It is the 20th anniversary of the movie that launched the phrase by Pedro, ‘If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true.’
Napolean Dynomite was released in 2004 and the film has definite ties to Cache Valley, specifically Richmond, and especially Preston, Idaho.
Preston business owner Kimberly Cannon is serving on a citizen’s committee working on planning a celebration.
On KVNU’s For the People program on Friday, Cannon said the film still attracts visitors to Preston.
“We have hundreds of people that come from all over the United States and even from England and Canada,” she explained.
Cache Arts is sponsoring a 20 year celebration for the movie on May 8th and Jon Heder, who played Napolean and Efren Ramirez who played Pedro, are known to be coming.
“And so, we are planning with Logan, since Preston is part of Cache Valley. We’re planning how to turn this into a bigger thing than just that, and celebrate the 20 years. Have people visiting the locations in Richmond where some it was filmed, and then of course, meeting the actors in Logan, and then coming up to Preston and touring all the sites up here.”
In her boutique store, Olive & Jo, Cannon has a map for Napolean tourists to put a pin in where they are from.
“Oh yes. My favorite story is 2 brothers, one was turning 50, and to celebrate his 50th birthday, they decided to go on a road trip from Minnesota to Preston, Idaho just to see the Napolean house (laughs). That was kind of what sparked my ‘I need to have a map and I need to start tracking all of these visitors because it is so much fun to have them come and see our little town.”
She said things are still in the works for the Preston part of the celebration around May 8th. Cannon said they may have a V.I.P. experience announcement coming soon.