Fall 2019
Dear Friends of 4-H,
The past year has proven to be a busy and successful one for the Windham County 4-H Outdoor Center. Our summer camp hosted nearly 1500 campers, and throughout the year our Youth Program Director Heather Logee ran several camper game days, teen weekends and the teen republic program as well as Ragged Hill Woods programs for local schools.
Our maintenance committee, aided by local volunteers is very busy keeping our campus in repair and renewing areas that are past their prime. Here are some updates of our maintenance projects and plans for the future.
- Six cabins will have been re-sided by this December with pledges in place for 4 more in the coming years thanks to generous donations and pledges. There are still 5 more cabins seeking sponsors.
- The dam on the pond: A comprehensive analysis and plans for repair to our leaking dam are underway. Engineering and environmental work along with a repair are estimated at a cost of over $250,000. If the dam requires total replacement the cost could easily double.
- Repairs to bathrooms in the Health Center are complete but expansion of the building to provide a more private needs assessment area are in the works.
- New roofing, doors and bathroom updates at Hacienda
- Replacement of our ancient tractor so we can plow snow, move manure and all that other fun stuff our tractor has done for us over the years
Volunteers have stained 8 buildings this year. Just this fall a group from The Hartford stained Sycamore, and Eversource employees stained Ranch House and Tumbleweed cabins. Eversource also replaced two of the metal entrance gates and cut down some large trees and most recently AMICA volunteers stained the pavilion. As much as volunteer labor saves us, the tools and supplies and the necessary contractors will still run into thousands of dollars in addition to the expenses involved in keeping the lodge open and running through the winter months.
Your support goes directly to work here and it truly does make a difference. Our board may all be volunteers, but we are donors too, and our committees take great care in planning and working together to assure every penny is accounted for and projects are completed as planned.
P If your family or business is interested in sponsoring a cabin in the future, we would love to hear from you the 4-H Motto is “To make the best better.” We take that message to heart here and hope our campers learn to love and care for their place as much as we do.
TO GIVE ONLINE VISIT OUR WAYS TO GIVE PAGE UNDER THE FOUNDATION TAB ON THE HOME PAGE
Sincerely,
Jane Rider, president Windham County 4-H Foundation, Inc.