2/9/2008: Some Great Things to Report!

Our workshop today was one to remember for many reasons....the truth is that we are now getting to the point that we can see a light at the end of the tunnel....well - - the FIRST tunnel anyway!

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First and foremost on my report list is that Dick Cowles FIXED the old conveyor belt that was on our cellar stairway - He actually had to take the motor home and contacted the company (the company built the conveyor in 1951) and get info on the switch - but I actually watched him ride the thing by the end of the day! (it holds up to 350 pounds on the whole 15 foot surface of the belt!) Now - we have it for sale for $300 and will send it to auction on march 15th if we do not have a buyer by then - so spread the word if you know of anyone who may want it. It is aluminum and is easy to move around (has wheels) and will never rust out! Oh - - it also runs forward and reverse! We will deliver within 15 miles for $50 - you can come and see it - just call me at 607-565-3111 and I can set that up for you!


SRAC Auction Items:
For those of you that do not know - SRAC is asking all of you to spring clean a little early and bring us or have us pick up items we can send to auction to raise funds...We have made nearly $2,000 on our first load of furniture, coins, and miscellaneous items we sent to auction a couple of weeks ago and will be having them down to pick up another load after March 15th! So please think of us and drop off anything you want to get rid of and I will give you a letter of donation with the prices that your items sold for your tax records. (We are a 501c3 and all donations will most likely be tax deductible for you!)

Next -
I wanted to say that we are getting to the end of the Gift Shop renovation - (complete with three cameras and a security system!) So if you were waiting for us to finish the painting before you donated flooring funds - it is time to give us a call! (YES - I am still looking for that!)

Seriously, Mike and Jeri Sanders are saying they will be done painting the gift shop / visitor center in the next week:


And we "unveiled" some of the leaded windows to see how it all looked:

These windows run all the way down the Park Ave side of our building and we just covered them to save $$ on heating bills this winter... I think you have to agree that they are awesome!

We also moved most of the stuff out of the gift shop area so that we can see what space we have and to start planning layout...here is a shot of Gloria Riegel and me talking about the front area shelving, etc...Gloria by the way will be working in and making her gourdes for our gift shop, as well is helping us at our workshops most Saturdays...

Mary VanSchaik and Susan Fogel also finished painting the book rack Ted Keir and Anne Meikle worked on last week and then started working on some display items:


At 1pm - Inga, Gloria, Anne and I sat down and laid out plans for the gift shop inventory both what SRAC will buy to sell and what we will sell on a commission basis. Trust me when I say you will be surprised at the amount of things we will have from kids things to jewelry to incredible artwork....

We are also planning out our hours of operation to begin in March and have decided that for the first few months we will be opening the gift shop/ visitor center from 1-5pm to allow for schools to get tours into our museum, possibly have a presentation, etc in the morning hours.

We are also planning out monthly evening events that will include:

• "Kid's Night," will be from 6-8pm one Friday a month, and will be $3 for kids 13 and under to come play games, make things, and sometimes have presentations, etc...
• "History's Mysteries," which will be a series that will run once a month and will cover different mysterious parts of our history and will be geared for people of all ages...
• "Local History Night," which will be a series of local historians telling different parts of our incredible local history.
• "Healthy You," will be a night dedicated to living healthier from how we cook to what we eat, to homeopathic and herbal remedies as well as other health care seminars and other informational presentations.
• "Archaeology Night," which will be a presentation followed by time for local collectors and professionals to bring in and share info about a certain topic or artifact type that is locally significant.
  
• "Wildlife Rehab Series," as you know this has already been scheduled to begin on March 20, from 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Adults $5 Children $3

We also plan to have some events such as Trivia contests, a Badge Night for scouts to earn badges on various topics, art and craft fairs; as well as other things that we will open our lecture workshop for, sporadically throughout the year.

AND THIS IS JUST WHAT WE WILL BEGIN WITH!
Stay tuned for announcements of the dates and times, etc...

In the Meantime -
We have alot more going on to get the place up and ready to go...we thank you for any support that you can give us!

Tom Vallilee has been working like crazy to keep things moving and our next phases are to finish the wall that they just put up yesterday, get the old lighting fixtures off the back ceiling area so that we can repair some of the tin that needs replacing before we can get that painted...here is Tom just today taking tin from the back room ceiling to replace areas that need fixing:

We also have to get the two bathrooms in out front, and oh yeah - -

Did I tell you we still need help affording new flooring?????

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Stop in any Saturday from 10 am t0 2pm to be a part of these incredible first days of a place we hope that the whole community will be better off for having...and hey - people are always stopping in because we are just fun to be around anyway!

Lon Kuterick, Ted Keir and Dick Cowles chatting today.


Lastly-
We finished the day with Susan Fogel bringing us a special gift from her daughter Katie...As most of you know, our birdstone that we use on our Journal and our magnets, etc is actually an image of a special artifact that was found in the Shepard Hills Country Club almost 100 years ago when they were digging up a sand trap....The birdstone was owned by Ellsworth Cowles, SRAC's Dick Cowles's dad. Unfortunately, Ellsworth fell on hard times and sold it - - and it has become our way of saying what SRAC stands for, about never selling the artifacts...because they are evidence...

Well - Katie Fogel is a sculptor and took some movie footage of Ellsworth holding and rotating the birdstone in his hands and the picture we use in our branding efforts and - - MADE a copy in resin for us to have molded and reproduced with the SRAC logo on them.

Katie - I don't know if you know how much we appreciate the work you did on this piece to make it available to our community to have and share with everyone who visits our center....but maybe this picture of Dick's face can give you an idea until then...