FARMINGTON – You have only one week left to buy a brick or two and help support the Fairbanks Meeting House construction project.
The buy-a-brick fund raising project to finish the exterior work of the community center building on Route 4 began last March, said organizer Patty Jacobs of the Fairbanks School Neighborhood Association. For only $5, a contributor can have a person’s name engraved on one of two plaques, “in honor of” or “in memory of,” and will be displayed at the entrance the building.
To date, some 500 “bricks” have been bought, but more are needed to complete the fund raising effort, Jacobs said. All donations with names included need to be mailed to association member Mary O’Donal at 201 Barlen Street, Farmington, ME 04938 by Jan. 1, 2009, so the plaques can be ordered.
Jacobs said during this holiday season, it’s a great time to be thinking of someone special and help out a good cause.
In July, an open house celebration of the Fairbanks Meeting House was held after 9 years of fund raising. The original 100-year-old schoolhouse burned down in 1998 and since then, FSNA has worked to rebuild the community center.
All told, the Fairbanks School Neighborhood Association managed to raise the $457,000 needed to build the community center. More than half the funds, $250,000 came through a USDA Rural Development grant. Another $100,000 matching grant was awarded and the rest, $107,000 was raised through years of bake sales, auctions and yard sales.
The center, which includes a spacious banquet hall or meeting center, adjacent kitchen and office space, which LEAP, Inc. will occupy upstairs. The Care & Share Food Pantry is located in the lower level of the building.
Next up for the building may be a “shared use” community kitchen in the basement. Organizers are looking into applying for grants to help install a commercial kitchen to rent to cooks who want to make food products for sale.
