Opinion & Editorial

Cottage Grove carousel project has successful fundraiser

Dear Editor,

Would like to report a very successful Saturday night dinner/dance fundraiser for the carousel. We had over 100 ticket sales. The fundraiser was held at the Cottage Grove High School cafetorium, and I’m happy to report the food was terrific!
Shelley Kurtz, former KVAL news anchor, was our MC. The Parsons Creek Orchestra provided dance music. Cameron Reiton did his rendition of The Auctioneer prior to our silent auction items. A fine seven-minute DVD, prepared by Faith Wellman, was shown of the history and work of what we are doing.
A big thank you to the Rotary Interact Club for the service they provided in serving the meals and picking up the plates.
Our sponsors are too numerous to go into as I would forget one, and that would be a shame. So I’ll just say a heartfelt thanks to our sponsors, those who are donating their time and effort to recreate a 1929 Herschell Carousel for Cottage Grove.
We no longer use the phrase “if the carousel is built.” We are positive the carousel will be built and it will be operating, probably on a temporary site, until the committee can secure funds for property and a building for its permanent home.
The rejuvenation is only possible through donations of material and those wonderful hands that work the wood to shape a carousel.
Phase 1 is the rejuvenation of the carousel so we can demonstrate to those in the greater community the beauty of an operating carousel and plant the seed of the happiness a carousel will bring to the community.
Through this operating demonstration, it will enable us to raise funds for Phases 2 and 3, namely, property and building.
Make no mistake, without these terrific donors of products and hands-on labor, we would not be on the threshold of success of bringing a bright carousel to Cottage Grove.
My sincere thanks to the dinner committee that organized a fine benefit dinner, the decoration committee that started before 1 p.m., decorating and completing the teardown about 10 p.m., all in the name of the carousel dream.
The Friends of the Carousel have had wonderful cooperation from the Cottage Grove Sentinel, KNND radio and the Creswell Chronicle, as well as KMTR and Rick Dancer TV. Without these media and news outlets, it would not be possible to communicate with our community in telling our story of the rejuvenation of the carousel dream for Cottage Grove.
Thank you again, one and all, for attending our benefit, and those who were unable, for your continued support.
If there is a reader out there who might be a retired grant writer or have the time to write grants, we have the researchers, but not the grant writers. We also need a person who can help us with a business plan. These are very expensive to put together, and we do not have that type of money in our bank account. All our funds are going to the rejuvenation of the carousel.
Those are our needs: grant writers and business plan creators.

Don Williams
Cottage Grove

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