Growing the Roots Campaign

A Thank You from the Land's Sake Board:

The Board of Land's Sake is very pleased to announce the success of Land's Sake's "Growing the Roots" campaign. The Campaign, our first, raised a total of $345,307 from 288 families and individuals! On behalf of all of us here at Land's Sake, thank you to all who participated as donors, volunteers, and supporters. This success enables Land's Sake to increase our service to the community and begin to build our next 30 years.

While there are far too many people to thank here individually, we would like to acknowledge a group of people who put in exceptional time and energy to the campaign, our Community Leaders. This group was the "engine" of Growing the Roots" providing the necessary leadership to engage the broader community. Our most sincere thanks go to Jean and Parish Arturi, Joe Berman and Susan Cantor, Bill Brady, Barbara and Bill Burgess, Melinda and Philip Constable, Alix and Peter Keating, Meg and Jonathan Kelly, Cindy and Seth Lawry, Clover Nicholas and Rex DuPont, Susan and Drew Tamoney, Dianne Savitzky and Michael Pappone, and Nathalie and John Thompson.

For many of us, the two magical evenings gathered at the Gateways Barn to celebrate our 30th anniversary will always be remembered. Our most sincere thanks go out to Pete and Julie Hyde, Trish Scozzafava, Melinda Constable, our auction donors, and the small army that created these remarkable evenings.

Finally a special thanks to our Development Chair, John Marchiony, and to our Board President Alyson Muzila who unfailingly led and pushed on until we achieved our goal.

Our expectation for Growing the Roots is that, with focused effort and your support, we can evaluate, reorder and create a more sustainable culture and structure at Land's Sake. We are happy to report that we are well on our way. Below are some of the highlights.

What Your Support Enabled:

Leadership in Environmental Education

  • Completed a highly successfully review, refocus, and redesign of our flagship summer education program, Green Power, including a special initiative to create connections with healthy foods.
  • Brought more animals to the farm and incorporated their caretaking into our youth programs.
  • Installed a new storage shed to support our many education programs.

Excellence in Farming

  • Purchased "Ned", the 85 hp, 4WD John Deere tractor.
  • Began construction on a new greenhouse that will greatly increase our growing capacity.
  • Purchased a new Athens discer to increase efficiency in the upcoming farming season.
  • Planned the addition of more covered storage by expanding our tractor shed and adding an area for safe fuels storage.
  • Supported ongoing work with consultants such as Dan Kaplan, a remarkable farmer from Western Mass, to review and revision our farm operations.

Building Capacity and Internal Systems

  • Completed a comprehensive review of our financial systems and are restructuring our processes and controls.
  • Completed a safety and compliance audit, wrote a new safety manual, and built a culture where safety is our #1 priority.
  • Made significant investments in the development of both staff and board leadership. We are a stronger, more resilient, and more focused organization.