Good Vibes...

Another blink, another week--gone. Unbelievable! I was reflecting on the last couple months and realized that all of the progress has occurred since the beginning of September. Again, unbelievable. It is amazing what can be accomplished when you are motivated and have an awesome group of people supporting and cheering you on.

I am very happy to announce, our support group has increased this past week; we have two new board members. Susan Griskonis has been deeply involved from the very beginning. She has taken on the legal stuff and I am so grateful. Paul Hetzler has been part of the team from the beginning as well, but just formalized his status as a board member. He brings a calm, steadiness and a propensity for thinking outside the box. Kara McCluckie just joined our efforts this week. She is a professor at SLU and is very ready to push up her sleeves and get to work. I look forward to getting to know her better in the next few months as we get up and running. Check out the Staff and Board page on the website to see their bios. The board is rounded out with Mike and me, however the two of us will resign, as soon as we recruit new members.

Factoid

While compiling data for the business plan, I found one interesting, and depressing little tidbit of information: three school districts in St. Lawrence county in 2010 had a 19% drop out rate, for those of us whose math skills are sub-par, that is almost 1 out of every 5 kids. The rest range from 13%-0% (Colton Pierrepont) and Canton comes in at 8%.  Hmmm, we have lost a few. I find this so incredibly sad, but I am not in the least bit surprised by these numbers.

Help Wanted:

Have I mentioned the OPEN HOUSE? Ken has a team together and I keep having dreams that the library is packed.  It would be really, really nice to find someone with the equipment and the skill to video the open house. Please, help us find that person!

Once we are able to get in, I plan on spending a couple of days cleaning the space. Anyone that wants to help is very welcome. Cleaning is probably one of my least favorite activities. Now sorting and organizing...that I love.

Also, does anyone have a carpet steamer/cleaner thing that we can borrow. I have never had success with the rentals.

After we clean, I would love to at least get a desk and chair into the office, so I can start hanging there instead of my little room with the fabulous round table and mandala painting at the SLU library. As much as I appreciate access to the Internet and beautiful views of Gunnison Chapel from the large windows, it is time to move on. There is a request in all that...at some point late next week, I would like to get a truck, driver and volunteer/s to move a desk, Paul has donated, from the SLU Sustainable Semesters quonset hut on RTE 68, to Main Street.

On the moving in theme, We will have SLU students to move the big items up the stairs on December 7th. It would be fantastic if there were a few more people to help with that effort.

We still need chairs. I have two emails out to the SUNY Canton facilities people in charge of “surplus stuff”, but have not heard from them.

We also need bookshelves...I would love to get some of the books out of my house and into the Center.

Thank you everyone! See you on Tuesday!

Progress:

Lots of little baby steps this week in preparation for the OPEN HOUSE on Tuesday, 7pm Canton Free Library.

I met with Ruta at the St Lawrence University warehouse and found many tables, a couch and a computer cart that we can use as a kitchen area. A team of SLU student volunteers will help move it all to the new space on December 7th.

Through MacKenzie's homeschooling experience/ independent study, we are learning more about the process. Thank you to the Guidance Counselor at Colton-Pierrepont for her help and advice.

A revised business plan has been submitted to the SUNY Canton Small Business Development Center. Michelle is amazing to work with. She offered feedback on the original version and had her research department find data about anything remotely educational.

We should be able to get into our space next week. The landlord is getting keys made for us.

Listen to NCPR Monday morning between 8:40 and 9:00 am. Todd Moe interviewed me about the Center this past Sunday.