MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – January 13, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: $15K donation to the Swedish Pavilion project, Swensson reenactment rescheduled to January 19, and more!

In our weekly update, keep up to date on what staff and volunteers at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum are working on to lift up the history of Lindsborg and the surrounding region. This weekly update both looks back at what happened last week and looks ahead at what’s coming.

For January 6-12, 2025:

- We had a major $15,000 donation in our campaign to save the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion under the Community Service Program (CSP) Tax Credits through the Kansas Department of Commerce! With $178,451.40 donated to the project and in the bank, we now have the necessary funds for the essential structural repair to the 120-year old historical structure and a start of $26,951.40 toward repairing the museum’s roof!
  We expect the structural repairs to be completed in Spring 2025.
  With 48 individuals, families, and businesses contributing to the project, we have used 75% of the grant, which means we still have remaining donation capacity of $60,689.75 under the CSP Grant (note that previous donors in 2024 can also give again for the 2025 tax year and still be eligible for credits).
  (Check out the time lapse video of Adam updating our progress chart in the video below.)
  With the structural repair funds secured, we now turn our focus to the “Raise the Roof” portion of the campaign to repair the 30-year old, leaking roof of the Pavilion in a more historic way. The remaining portion on the CSP grant will constitute a great running start on this next important milestone of preserving the Swedish Pavilion.
  Read about all the latest here and let us know how much you are interested in contributing: www.oldmillmillmuseum.org/save-the-pavilion!
  Any Kansas resident (or out-of-state resident who files a Kansas income tax return) can qualify to receive back a 70% fully refundable tax credit on their Kansas return with a donation of $250 or more to the project! The available tax credits will be used to enhance fundraising efforts for the Pavilion Restoration & Improvement Project.
  (The credits are expected to raise $238,000 total in donations, which fully covers critical stabilization repairs to prevent collapse of the historic structure and will partially cover installation of a new, more historically accurate roof. There is still much to accomplish to fully take advantage of the tax credits program.)
- We have rescheduled a reenactment presentation of Carl Aaron Swensson to be at 2 p.m. on this Sunday, January 19 at the museum as well as livestreamed online. We opted to delay the presentation because of the recent large snowfall. This is a part of the Historical Speaker Series in partnership with the Smoky Valley Historical Association and is the museum’s featured event of the Lindsborg Arts Council’s “Lindsborg Cultural Crawl.” (Adam sent an email invitation to current and past museum members to encourage them to attend.)
  Carl Swensson

Adam and several Handy Crew volunteers spent time last week clearing museum walkways and parking spots of snow to allow us to reopen to the public again on Wednesday, January 15.
Need a great gift for the genealogist or history enthusiast in your life? NEW in the museum gift shop, you can now purchase a gift certificate good for a free registration to one of the museum’s Online Swedish Genealogy Workshops anytime in 2025 ($50) or a 2025 Pursuing YOUR Past presentation ($10). Your gift recipient will receive a one-time-use code by email or mail good to pay for the registration fee for one of these popular sessions!

- We have now opened registration for “Are YOU the Family Archivist? (What to Do With ALL That Family Stuff?!)” – a fantastic hourlong presentation by Sue Schlichting of Pursuing YOUR Past. The session is scheduled for Saturday, February 1 and is just $10 for non-members or FREE for museum members!
- Registration is open for the next Swedish Genealogy workshop on February 15, 2025! We’re very excited to have a new addition this time to the featured speakers – Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective!
- We have started to take reservations for Millfest for Kids on Friday, May 2! Get in touch if your school or homeschool group would like to participate.
- Adam prepared the quarterly report to the Community Service Program tax credits grant.
- Three online gift shop orders placed over the previous weekend went out last week.
- Adam created an informational flyer for use in talking to milling and agriculture companies about sponsoring Millfest 2025. It includes a detailed description on what makes the Old Mill so unique and special.
- NOW OPEN: “Skeleton-Of-Dog… Selected Geology & Natural History Artifacts from the Bethany College Collection Archives” is a temporary mini-exhibit at the museum featuring some unique artifacts not seen in public for decades!