We’re within 10% of reaching our second fundraising goal and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us get this far. While we’re a little shy of the additional $15,000 we wanted to raise, we’re still in pretty good financial shape going forward. While donations have slowed down, they haven’t stopped coming in and I trust we’ll reach our goal before long. In round numbers, since we started fundraising last spring we’ve raised over $130,000 in donations. Impressive for a small lake association.

We generally don’t single out individual donors for recognition, but from time to time we do and I’d like to acknowledge a recent generous donation to our Dam Purchase & Repair Fund from the Whitefield Lions Club. It was both unexpected and greatly appreciated. I hate to say it but I wasn’t really familiar with the Lions Club and what they do so I read up about it. It’s an international, non-political service organization established in 1916 with currently over 1.7 million members world-wide. The Whitefield Lions Club has been serving the towns of Whitefield, Jefferson, Windsor and Somerville, Maine since 1953 and is part of Lions Clubs International Maine District 41. Thank you Whitefield Lions!

We reached our initial Phase 1 fundraising goal of $90,000 much sooner than expected and while the Board hadn’t discussed trying to raise additional funds for permanent repairs so soon, it only makes sense that we maintain our forward fundraising momentum and move right into Phase 2 fundraising without delay! We needed the initial funds to purchase the dam in a relative hurry, however Phase 2 fundraising can proceed at a somewhat more leisurely pace. The money is to pay for engineering services and for permanent dam repairs which we won’t need to spend for a while. We have only begun working on getting prices and we won’t have a firm budget for the work yet. However, some preliminary estimates we’ve received indicate we’ll need at least $30,000 for this second and final phase of effort, possibly more, hence a new fundraising goal of $125,000. We may need to revise that figure upward but for now it seems like both a realistic goal and an achievable one. I haven’t felt the need to reset our donation thermometer and have instead just added $35,000 to the original $90,000 goal giving a new goal of $125,000. The money all goes into the same pot, so to speak. Any money left over after permanent repairs are completed will be use to fund ongoing dam maintenance and repairs. Owning the Clary Lake dam is a big commitment and we’re taking it seriously. Continue reading →

In only two short weeks of fundraising we have met our phase 1 goal of $90,000!!!! Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed,  and special thanks to our patron who has matched donations dollar for dollar. I’m truly grateful for the outpouring of support, financial and otherwise, shown by our members, other lake shore owners, and friends of Clary Lake in the surrounding community.

However, our fundraising efforts haven’t ended with this early victory, in fact we’ve really just begun so please, if you have intended to make a donation but just haven’t gotten a round to it yet, please do so at your earliest opportunity! We plan to make temporary repairs to the dam as soon as we own it, but some unanticipated expenses and the need to make permanent dam repairs not too far down the road means we’re going to need more money before long. The more money we can raise now, the sooner we can move on to that next phase.

Our rapid fundraising success has actually caught us a little flat-footed as we still have a lot to do as we move forward with purchasing the Clary Lake dam. The Board is working diligently on multiple fronts. Stay tuned for developments!

The Clary Lake Association has finally received Exempt Charitable Organization status under the State’s Charitable Solicitations Act. We applied for exempt status back in July. I thought it prudent at the time to curtail our solicitations activities while our application was pending review.  In accordance with our new-found status I have added back the donate button on the “Donate to the Association” page as well as put a donate button back on selected pages. My wife Margaret, who is the chair person of the Fundraising Committee, will be most pleased.

Let the fund raising begin!

With all the doomy and gloomy petition stuff I’ve been posting of late, it is a real pleasure (that’s me smiling at left) to be able to provide this update on the Clary Lake Association fund raising initiative. Don and Lucy Norman of Jefferson stopped by the other day to talk to me about making a donation to the Clary Lake Dam Repair fund. They hoped that by putting some “seed money” in the fund that it would encourage others to contribute. This afternoon, Lucy called to tell me that she had just dropped a check off with our Treasurer, Linda Gallion.

The check was for $1000.

I’m pretty much blown away by the Norman’s donation and wish to publicly thank them for their generosity. I’ve known this was coming for a few days and have been thinking in the back of my mind how I would acknowledge what they’ve done. Finally, I just decided to write this post.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Beverly D’Urbano for her generous donation of $50 to the fund and for being the first person (besides me) to try out our new online PayPal donation processing system! The dam repair fund, which a few days ago stood at $152 is now sitting pretty at $1202.

Make that $1302, Mary Shaw just donated $100 to the Dam fund!

Make that $1402, Bill Donovan just donated $100 to the Dam fund!

Dam Fund Progress: [progressbar url=”https://clarylake.org/data/dam.txt” rounded=”0″ width=”400px” color=”green”]

And….. we’re off! Remember: No amount is too big, or too small. Give Generously, and Give Often 🙂