In this week’s update: Funding secured for Swedish Pavilion structure (now to “Raise the Roof”!), Heritage Christmas, $7,000 digitizing multimedia grant, 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 December 9-15, 2024:
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- BIG NEWS!
We have crossed a critical milestone 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 $151,884.25 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 that’s iconic of Swedish-American culture!
We expect the repairs to be completed in Spring 2025.
With 44 individuals, families, and businesses contributing to the project, we have used 63% of the grant, which means we still have remaining donation capacity of $85,041.75 under the CSP Grant. 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.
This is a great time of year to consider making a donation under the program as the end of the calendar tax year approaches!
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 will fully cover 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.)
- BIG NEWS!
- Heritage Christmas 2024 was last Saturday, December 14, and a great success on a beautiful evening. About 250 attended!
- 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 learned last week that we successfully applied for a small Nutt grant for $7,000 to digitize the museum’s archive multimedia materials! Watch for these materials as they are uploaded and become available via the Historic Image Database and the museum’s YouTube page.
- Our 2024 year-end “Harvest of Giving” Fundraising Campaign continues with a $5,000 Museum Match (doubles all new and renewing memberships as well as one-time donations made between now and the end of the year). Currently we’ve secured $3,985 – or 80% – of the match. Help us to make sure we don’t let any part of this generous challenge slip by!
You can also help the museum by donating to the Save the Pavilion campaign and Millfest Sponsorships. Please take a moment to learn more about each of these options and to decide what ways of supporting the museum are right for you!
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- 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 processed 10 renewing memberships. Total current active membership is 167. You can become a member today at www.oldmillmuseum.org/members. (And right now through the end of the year, that contribution can be DOUBLED thanks to an anonymous donor!)
- Staff attended a 2025 planning meeting with fundraising consultants last week.
- Aubrey attended McPherson Chamber Connections.
- Staff and volunteers worked on setting up for Heritage Christmas on Saturday. Lenora purchased supplies and prepared kits for Christmas Crafts. Adam prepared various signage needs.
- Tyler worked on uploading images for the Historic Image Database. We now have more than 7,000 images uploaded, which have garnered more than 222,000 views!
- Adam and staff prepared a mailing list of physical letters to go out under the year-end Harvest of Giving campaign.
- 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!
- 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!
Thank you to our museum volunteers!
Last week, our volunteers included Tim Stewart, Susan Lundstrom, Mike Lynam, Betty Amos, Mike Koch, Jerry Hammerton, Les Sperling, Julie Ann Neywick, and Leland Nelson.