Helping the Homestead Foundation

I did the official tally for the plant sale total yesterday and we made over $4000 for the Homestead Foundation. Not bad for a little community plant sale. The local food bank sent a van out yesterday to pick up the leftover plants. The driver made two trips, and reports are that by the time he got back with the second load, half the plants from the first load had already gone to new homes. The food bank will plant any that are left in their community garden and harvest the produce. I am glad that we are able to contribute in that way.

Our Homestead Foundation has an interesting history. For years, it was the school that served our community, which is known as Mountain Brook. The last classes were held there around 1996, the year before DD#1 entered kindergarten. Because Mountain Brook School had been annexed to the Cayuse Prairie school district—the elementary school my girls attended—the district maintained responsibility for the campus. The terms of the original deed stipulated that if it ever stopped being used as a school, the property would revert to the original owners, a local family by the name of Brown.

My friend Susan is the person who came up with the idea of turning the school into a community library, and the Mountain Brook Homestead Foundation was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit around 2000. When the Cayuse Prairie school district decided it no longer wanted responsibility for the campus, a search was undertaken to find the descendants of the original Brown family. They, in turn, donated the property to the Homestead Foundation.

It has taken several years to find our footing. The Homestead Foundation—of which I am a board member and the chairman of the fundraising committee—is now responsible for paying the bills. Just the cost of keeping the lights on and doors open is about $11,000 per year. That doesn’t begin to address the cost of capital improvements. There are two buildings on the one-acre campus. One is the 1927 schoolhouse, which is a darling building that could be used as a community center but needs a tremendous amount of work. The other is the 1950’s-era building currently being used as the Library and the meeting area for our Thursday sewing group. That building also needs some maintenance.

I am hoping that we will be able to recruit additional volunteers. One of the phrases I hear that frustrates me to no end is “Why don’t you [insert fundraising idea here]?” This is an all-volunteer organization. Fundraising and grant-writing for this organization could be a full-time job for me if I were willing to allow that. We don’t lack for ideas on how to make money. We lack the manpower. I know that community involvement is at an all-time low these days—our local volunteer fire department is struggling, too—but I am seeing more interest from our community in coming together to make the campus a vibrant and useful meeting place. I hope we can capitalize on that.

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The baby robins left the nest, but it looks like mama is gearing up for round two. She’s been tidying up the nest and now looks like she’s sitting on another clutch of eggs.

I think the rain has moved on. It looks like it will be at least partly sunny and warmer here for the next week, getting well up into the 70s and 80s. I’d like to get plants in today and tomorrow. After all this rain, the grass needs to be cut again, too.