Help revitalize the Slyboro Schoolhouse!

Team fundraiser

David Garvoille and Kristen Wescoat are organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

UPDATE 8-6-21
We have alumni from Lehman College at the orchard this weekend. They arrived yesterday (8/5) and worked their butts off. Wearing tyvek jumpsuits and P100 masks, they scraped all the lead paint that was peeling. Today they stacked all the old wood (which we'll use to repair the hole in the floor from fixing the rotten floor beam), and began painting the interior with lead encapsulating paint. More to report later this weekend.

UPDATE 07-15-21
Publicolor youth are coming soon! Twelve youth and two adult staff members from Publicolor are coming to lead the exterior painting of the schoolhouse from July 30th to August 2nd. If you can help with a donation right now, it would be very needed and appreciated. Your donation will buy food/snacks for 4 days/3 nights for 14 ppl ($1600) and also cover gas and rental of a 15-person van ($2000). To break it down, $30 covers meals and a private tour of the Slate Valley Museum for one student. Your gift of $120 would, in effect, sponsor one student. We're also visiting a farm with baby horses, picking blueberries, and visiting a working dairy. Community service, learning, fun, transformation! Your donation does it all. Thank you!!

UPDATE - 05-11-21
Greetings friends! I'm trying to make updates to the GoFundMe regularly but it's hard to juggle this and my work at the orchard. Very busy time of the year. But here's the two big things you should know:
1) We will be having a spaghetti dinner fundraiser at the orchard on May 28th honoring Mary Ann Scribner. She's 81 and attended the school from 1946 to 1950, when the school was closed. She me be the last surviving student from the school. Here's the link to RSVP: https://bit.ly/spaghetti0528.
2) We are also fundraising to give 13 HS youth from NYC a summer youth leadership experience. The youth are from Publicolor, a nonprofit where I have worked and volunteered for over 15 years in NYC. The youth will lead the transformation of the exterior of the schoolhouse July 23-26. They will also get to blueberry and cherry pick, brining fresh berries back to their families in the city. We have to have the interior lead paint completely covered before they arrive. So your gift now matters. I need to get another 5 gal. bucket of lead encapsulating paint (about $225 w/ tax). Thank you!!

**Huge and heartfelt thanks for your donations so far! We're almost 1/3rd of the way there in just over a month! It would be fabulous if we could get to $6000 by June 30. **

Warmly,
Dave
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HELP REFURBISH & REVITALIZE THE OLD SLYBORO SCHOOLHOUSE!

Located on the grounds of New York's oldest U-Pick apple farm, the Slyboro Schoolhouse has served the Granville community since it was built around 1905. It first was used as a school for grades 1 through 6, later it became a spot for community events, an art gallery and a home for AA meetings. It has largely stood empty and in disrepair for the last 25 years.

With community support, we can turn the building back into a place for learning and recovery. I'm working to raise funds and a team of volunteers to help clean and repair this building and bring it back to life. With your help it can become an educational stop for school group tours who visit the orchard, and it can once again be a home for community events and covenant groups like AA. A potential mural on the side of the school could be painted -- an Instagrammable spot promoting Granville and Washington County to the world.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED THIS WEEKEND - April 10th & 11th
Sign up here: https://bit.ly/SchoolCleanWeekend
Clarence Ritchie has generously offered to drop off a dumpster so we can start cleaning out the building. If you can bring your own mask, goggles (eye protection) and gloves, that would be fantastic. I will have some protective gear, too. Lots of detritus to sweep out, old furniture to scrap, boxes of things long ago stored and forgotten to be donated or tossed. If you are familiar with rehabbing buildings, please come and share your knowledge. Volunteer hours this weekend are:

Saturday, 4/10 from 4 to 6 pm
Sunday, 4/11 from 2 to 5 pm

Whatever is not done by end of Sunday will be completed on Monday, 4/12 from 10-2.

DONATIONS NEEDED
So far I've been paying for what I can out of my own pocket. Tyvek jumpsuits, work gloves, special (and expensive) lead encapsulating paint. I am looking for a nonprofit who would be willing to be my fiscal sponsor, to take donations tax free on my behalf. In the meantime, I've set up this GoFundMe.

PHASE I GOAL - APRIL/MAY - INTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS

Duane Daigle, a building contractor, visited the building in March. His biggest concern was that the pins are missing on the south wall. The posts for the wall need to be wrenched back in place and new pins slid through the existing holes. The space also needs to be cleaned out, critter-proofed, and the interior walls painted to cover up any lead paint. This is Phase I.

PHASE II GOAL - JULY
PUBLICOLOR SUMMER LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE & EXTERIOR IMPROVEMENTS

The Phase II goal is to have the exterior repaired and painted and the windows replaced. To help lead this phase, I invited the nonprofit youth development group, Publicolor, to lend their able hand. Founded in 1996, this NYC-based nonprofit engages youth in their education and teaches them the marketable skill of commercial painting. Publicolor youth have painted literally thousands of square feet of interior and exterior spaces, turning drab, depressing facilities, especially public schools, into vibrant spaces. I am a former NYC public school teacher and I also worked for Publicolor for five years. It has been my dream to bring a group of Publicolor "city kids" to Hicks Orchard to help lead a transformation project. This schoolhouse project is THE project we've been waiting for!

During a 4-day, 3-night visit, the Publicolor students will paint the entire exterior of the schoolhouse and prep the northern wall for an eventual mural (Phase III). They will also learn about our rural economy, visit farms, and gain a better understanding of our regional food systems. We plan on having a meetup with youth from Granville, too, perhaps over a BBQ with the FFA kids from Granville HS. While staying at the orchard, they will be able to pick cherries and blueberries, bringing them home to their families back in the city. With your generous donation, you can provide a truly unforgettable and purposeful summer leadership experience to these youth as they help preserve and transform a beloved Granville landmark.

COSTS
As with any rehab project, you never know entirely how much you'll need. At this moment, Phase I and Phase II, at a minimum, will cost $10,000. A draft budget can be found here: Slyboro Renovation Budget .

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Thank you in advance for supporting this transformation! Please contact me if you have any questions or want to provide technical support or lend a hand in other ways. You can contact us through this GoFundMe page.