From the President’s Desk

Our next quarterly meeting is Sunday, September 12 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. We hope you will join us for the meeting and program. Refreshments will be served following the meeting and entertainment.

We are very pleased to report that our annual yard sale was a great success. We took in almost $2,500 from all the items that were donated by members and friends of the Ypsilanti Historical Society. Our sincere thanks to all the volunteers who spent time preparing for the sale and a special thanks to Bill and Karen Nickels who hosted the event in their yard. The sale also helps the community in additional ways. At the end, leftover household items were donated to the Center for Independent Living, leftover books were donated to the District Library, and the remaining leftover items were donated to the Ypsilanti Public Schools Foundation Resale Shop.

Two new maintenance efforts on the museum building are currently under way. The first project is to repair the front steps and front door entrance including the replacement of the limestone side walls and the limestone threshold under the door. This project will cost approximately $8,000 and an anonymous donor has donated the funds to complete the project. The second project is to repair and paint 43 windows and construct and install storm windows on these openings. This project will cost approximately $300 per window or $12,900 for the entire project. We are initiating a “Buy a Storm Window” program to raise the funds. Additional information about the program is included later in this issue of the Gleanings.

Our new expanded and resurfaced parking lot has relieved some of the parking issues we have had over the past several years. However, during the pouring of the cement we ended up with a cold joint which was caused by one of the cement trucks being late during the pour last fall. Three of the 10’ x 10’ squares will be repoured and the parking lines will be repainted. A sincere thanks to all of our members and friends who contributed their time and/or money for this major project.

We are always looking for volunteers as docents for the Museum or research assistants for the Archives. Both the Museum and Archives are open from 2:00 to 5:00 pm from Tuesday through Sunday. If you are available during that time and are interested in helping us preserve the historical information and artifacts of the area, or educating the general public about our history, please give me a call at 734-476-6658.