Afton
Nelson County, Virginia
As we first told you weeks ago, considerable resistance was met when RVCC accepted a $20,000 grant from The Dominion Foundation. The same company promoting the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through Nelson and surrounding counties. After a unanimous decision by the RVCC board to return the grant to the Dominion Foundation, the outpouring from the community was tremendous. More than $ 20,000 was received to meet the criteria from The Perry Foundation for their matching grant.
Blue Ridge Life Magazine donated $1000 to the initiative late last month to help the center raise the funds necessary.
In an official release on Tuesday afternoon RVCC’s Executive Director Stu Mills spread the good news.
“We wanted to give everyone a quick update on the Green Initiative, since our August 1 donation date has now come and gone!
And it’s really good news.
Your amazing pledges have been turning into donations for the past couple of weeks, and we’re happy to report that we now have more than enough cash to cover the check that we sent back to the Dominion Foundation on July 21st. Even better, we surpassed the $21,317 threshold we needed to match the Perry Foundation’s challenge grant, so we forwarded all the paperwork to them just two weeks ago. And long before we expected it, their check arrived in our mailbox last Thursday!
We still have a small number of pledges that are outstanding, but we’re confident that most of them will be honored, since several people are on vacation right now. We’re very hopeful that when all the donations are complete we will have enough funds to complete this phase of the Green Initiative, including the lead-paint abatement project that involves the repair and re-painting of all of the fascias and soffits on the original building. That is a long-held dream of mine, and I know it’s shared by the Building & Grounds Committee, the Board and the rest of the staff!
To honor your pledge –or to make one – please drop a check by the office or in the mail made out to RVCC, and please be sure to put “Green Initiative” in the memo line. Or, you may pay by credit card or PayPal here in the office or on our website at this link: http://rockfishvalleycommunitycenter.memberlodge.com/donations Just ‘mouse-over’ Membership/Donations, click Donations and scroll down to the donations form on the page. Again, please be sure to enter “Green Initiative” in the donation designation box.
We hope to get started on the windows replacement phase of the project very soon, so keep your eyes open when you visit over the next couple of months. With any luck, we’ll have this beautiful old building sealed tight as a drum (and a lot prettier!) by the start of cold weather!
Finally, all of us here at the Rock want to thank you – our community – for helping to guide us and sustain us through these very challenging past couple of months. You’ve totally made believers out of a few of us skeptics who underestimated your resolve to meet a huge challenge by opening your wallets and your hearts. Your generosity and commitment to community is unprecedented in our history.”
That is very good news!
Thanks to everyone and looking forward to seeing the project get underway!
