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The Saranac Lake Community Store
took another step toward its goal of raising $500,000 in capital
needed to commence operations.
Fundraising efforts in recent
months netted an additional $10,000 for the store, which aims to
open up a community-owned retail business in Saranac Lake.
Melinda Little is the
interim board president for the Community Store. She says the latest
progress highlights a strong support base here in the Tri-Lakes.
“We will be ramping
up our efforts over the summer to reach the finish line so that we
can begin the real work of establishing a retail store in Saranac
Lake,” Little said.
Community Store
spokesman Alan Brown says numerous outreach efforts have driven the
most recent round of contributions.
“Most of it came out
of the last newsletter we issued which went to existing investors
and people who expressed interest,” he said. “And most of that
investment was actually people increasing their investments. People
who had already invested are investing more.”
The $500,000 goal is
within reach, Brown adds. By December the group hopes to have met
its minimum capital requirements – that’s also when the store’s
current authorization runs out.
Brown says share
parties hosted by supporters have netted a substantial chunk of
capital. Those individuals also work to spread information about the
store to gain new investors.
“We’re also going to
be contacting a lot of our existing investors and asking them for
suggestions of people who we can approach,” Brown said.
“Friends, family,
work colleagues – so that we can start approaching people directly,”
he said. “And of course we are going to be very present at community
events throughout the summer. Farmers markets, the block party, and
probably other events that we haven’t firmed up yet.”
Board Vice President
Gail Brill says representatives from the Community Store will be
on-hand at the Saranac Lake Village Farmers Market almost every
Saturday throughout the remainder of the season.
“This is just an
outline of our presence,” she said. “We do plan to attend other
events during the summer.”
Shareholders must be
residents of New York and Brown notes that the organization plans to
seek out further support from seasonal residents in the coming
months.
“Second home owners,
people who have lake homes, etc.,” Brown said. “Of course not all of
them are New York State residents so we have to be mindful of that.
There are many people from the New York City area, Albany area,
Rochester, Buffalo – they have second homes here so we’re hoping to
reach out to them over the summer.”
Saranac Lake resident
Jack Drury recently won the group’s 50/50 fundraising raffle. He
subsequently took the winnings and invested them in Community Store
shares.
“I hope others are
convinced of the value of this type of investment,” he said.
“Saranac Lake is on the verge of many excellent things happening and
the Community Store is one of them.”
-Chris
Morris, 7-10-09
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