Museum Memos
The End is Near!
Not the world, hopefully, but efforts to finally open Cranberry House.
With some recent gifts and grants in hand, work on Cranberry House is in high gear. The well, pump, and fittings were installed last winter. In early April, with snowflakes still flying, workmen finished the fire escape. The septic system was completed and covered, and eight truckloads of fill, loam (topsoil), and path gravel were spread to better contour the site, create an access ramp, and make a front lawn.
This month workers put in the fire sprinkler system and volunteers seeded the “Theater Green” lawn, which will be the site of our fund raising Garden Party, July 22.
Inside, our building contractor is hard at work installing second floor support beams, walls, pipes, wires, and plumbing and electrical fixtures.
As you can imagine, there’s much to do. This season will be a busy time, but with our current funds, plus those we expect to raise this summer, we’re hopefully optimistic that Cranberry House will be finished late this year, and open for the 2008 season.
Save the date!
Sunday July 22, 2007, 2-5 pm
(note: date changed from previous newsletter)
GARDEN PARTY on the theater green at Cranberry House. Music, Food, Fun, with an Auction of Painted Pieces, Art, surprises, and memory gifts of trees and plants for Cranberry House. Let’s make this a big success so we can finish the job!
The new fire escape, on the south side of Cranberry House
We want to finish enough to open!
This year we were thrilled to receive a gift of $80,000 from Louise Marr, in memory of her family and her Preble ancestors. We also received $25,000 from the Fund for Commonweal, a $5000 gift, and several smaller private donations. This allowed the building committee to finalize and implement most interior plans.
Much as we’d like to open Cranberry House with all elements in place, we feel our most important goal is to open at least the museum and cultural center as soon as possible. Current funds, plus a reasonable amount yet to be raised this summer, allow us to open next year, but without furniture, the café, and a handicap lift. Those elements, though important, are not essential to opening.
If response to this summer’s fund raising campaign is above expectation, we’ll certainly include some or all of those missing elements before the grand opening next year.
Summer Fund Raising
DON’T FORGET!!!
We need your hand-painted furniture, art work, or gifts for the Garden Party, July 22. We still have unfinished furniture available for you to paint – ask Bruce Komusin.
Beverly Sanborn is once again donating a beautiful quilt, all in sea glass colors, to be auctioned for the event. Won’t you search your attic for pieces for the auction?
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This summer we’ll hold a fun contest called “Where on Cranberry Island?” We’ll print a booklet of island photos, some familiar and some obscure. The idea is to identify the location where each photo was taken. So you think you know the island? Prove it! The entry with the most correct answers wins a great prize!
The Café
Everyone awaits the opening of the café. But we don’t have funds right now to equip the kitchen. We will have walls, floors, electric, and water, but we need the rest. Would anyone like to honor or remember a loved one by donating the kitchen in their name? The project to make and equip the kitchen has a budget of $30,000.
It’s YOUR Cultural Center.
We need to hear from you.
It’s not too soon to begin planning for our future. When Cranberry House is open, it will host a Cultural Center on the second floor – essentially a large, open, multi-purpose room with a capacity of 50. We plan to have tables, chairs, portable stage platforms, and a sound and video projection system. We need input from ALL of you about what should go on there.
What kind of programs or workshops would you like to see held there? More for children, or adults? How often should we hold special events, and what type? Any other ideas? Please email:
Bruce ( bkomusin@cranberryisles.com ) or
Wini ( winis@smart-studio.com ) or write to
Cranberry House, POB 12, Cranberry Isles, ME 04625
Need a tax deduction?
Give to your favorite Museum!
We are a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt organization. All your money goes to a worthwhile project, with no administration fees. All donations, large or small, yield the satisfaction of enriching the community, but substantial donors also get significant tax benefits, plus lasting recognition through a permanent named remembrance item. Your name, or that of a loved one, will be engraved on a plaque by the item – to remind future generations of your thoughtful support.
| Amount | Item (choose one or more) |
| $80,000 | Cultural Center |
| $30,000 | Hitty Café or Handicap Lift |
| $15,000 | Entrance Room & Stairway or Entrance Path & Ramp or Fire Escape or Fire Sprinkler System or Multimedia Lab or Heating System or Memory Garden |
| $10,000 | Roof or Landscaping |
| $8,000 | Bathroom & Art Sink |
| $5,000 | Forest Trail or Granite Bench or Decorative Water Fountain |
| $500 | Memorial Rock |
| $300 | Door |
| $150 | Window |