How to Donate

Board of Directors

Advisory Board

This edition of “Chalkboard”, our second to be published, will update our alumni and friends as to the activities of the Scrabble School Preservation Foundation Board. You will be apprised of upcoming events that we ask you to consider to attend and/or contribute to in a way comfortable to you.

The nine directors meet monthly and plan the activities and strategies towards accomplishing our goal of reclaiming, rehabbing and reusing the Scrabble School building. In June and on July 4, 2005, several Directors conducted outreach activities seeking donations and mailing list members. They gave as thank you gifts for donations, t-shirts, mugs, pens, note cards. These mementos are inscribed with the Scrabble School logo and a statement “for the preservation of Scrabble School”. We were well received by the public and gave away our initial stock. The Board has authorized another order.

The Board authorized the President to establish an advisory group that will act as a “think tank” for the Board. The advisory group has met once and expects to be in frequent contact with each other as required and asked by the President. The advisory group does not have an official status but will assist the Board in its planning and activities in a consultant role.

The Board has hired for a 4-month period, a consultant who will research, and write grant proposals and advise on managerial functions. This opportunity was possible by a grant from the Dowager Fund at the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation.

“It is not a ruin.” This statement was made by Dr. Craig Barton while meeting recently with several members of the Board and advisory group in the Scrabble School building.
His comment was received by the assembled as an affirmation that the structure was well worth the effort in time and dollars to rehab and return to a useful asset for the community. Dr Barton is a professor of architecture at University of Virginia and personally specializes in helping communities with projects such as we are doing with Scrabble School. He provided his expert view of the structure and insights for the Board’s future work.

On October 29, 2005, the Board is sponsoring a “Homecoming” for alumni and friends of Scrabble School. A picnic atmosphere will be at the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church in Scrabble, VA with food and musical entertainment. A shuttle bus will take attendees to/from the Scrabble School site. While touring the site we expect to hear stories about their experiences while attending the School from the alumni that will be video-recorded for the historic archives. Scrabble School mementos will be available as gifts to contributors and donors to the Foundation.

We are closing in on our date to report to the County Board of Supervisors regarding our plan for Scrabble School and its future (November,2005). We are narrowing the possibilities for its use for the community, especially our senior citizens. Research indicates availability of grant money, if we have matching funds. The site is eligible to be listed as a Commonwealth historic structure as well as on the national register of historic buildings. We have a “gem”, as we have been told, to be made useful again.
The Board appeals to you to help in any way, monetarily, time, talent and now with any items that can be placed in the historic archives.

The Board is asking that alumni go into their “attics” and find any item that they may have that relates to their time at Scrabble School. The Board is looking for such items to include in the planned interpretive permanent historic display in the building. Alumni may donate and/or loan such items to the Foundation. For information about items and the Foundation’s interest in them, you are asked to contact Dorothy Warner at the Scrabble School address or call 540-987-8103.

We again appeal to you to contact alumni and friends that will be interested in helping to rehab and reuse the Scrabble School building. Your donation will help with matching funds for grants. Your time and talent will assist in accomplishing our common goal.