Help Restore Beadniks and The Lost Foundation After Flood

Hello! My name is Maddie and I have been an employee at Beadniks for 5 years now. Yesterday (9/23/24) our store suffered a devastating flood due to a fire on the fourth floor of the building. I am passing on this message from Brian, the owner, to hopefully get some community support for our business and nonprofit museum that means so much to so many people!

"Hello, my name is Brian A. Robertshaw and I am the director of the Lost Foundation, a small nonprofit with an educational mission to preserve ancient & antique beads and artifacts as a source of education and inspiration for future generations.

We are located on the lower level of Beadniks, a beloved craft & gift store that has operated in Brattleboro, VT for the past 33 years.

Our brick building suffered a fire on 9/23/24 and much damage was caused by the sprinkler systems which flooded the store and museum with thousands of gallons of water.

For many years we have had our educational center doors open to the public, collaborated with schools & private institutions, shared thousands of images and information on social media and worked with other museums sharing our collection and research for free.

The loss of our library (containing many rare, out of print books), destruction of many donated one-of-a-kind ancient & precious artifacts, structural damage and cleanup has left us with an overwhelming task of restoring and rebuilding.

Operating on a small budget, we are faced with potential shortages & shutdown.

We are trying to raise funds for restoration and sustainability of our facilities. All of our staff are volunteers and are passionate about our work. You can visit our website www.lostfdn.org or check out our social media channels @beadniks for more details."