Frank and Ernest would be proud! In February of 2023, when we realized we needed to replace our aged heating system, we knew we were facing one of the largest capital improvements we’d had in a long time. The $150,000 price tag seemed daunting, while a few cold Sundays with little heat reminded us how urgent the repair would be.
So we embarked on our two-year Warm Regards campaign to raise the funds for the project with a combination of a $41,000 diocesan grant, and $110,000 in individual contributions, and fundraisers. As initial bills rolled in we planned to pay them from our reserves with the goal of replenishing those funds from campaign income. We gave ourselves a deadline of May 2025 to cover the full cost of the boiler replacement, which in the end totaled a little over $153,000.
Thanks to your support of this project, and a generous matching grant incentive from an anonymous donor, we raised the remainder of the funds for the project early in fall of 2024. And even though we met our goal in October of 2024, our donor indicated that all contributions made to the project from September through the end of November would be matched. People who had been giving monthly contributions to the Warm Regards Campaign were invited to keep the pledges coming, with the goal of helping to fuel a new capital improvements fund. Others gave generous one-time gifts.
As a result of that support and the matching funds it generated, the Warm Regards Campaign exceeded its goal by more than $78,000! Our new boiler system, three energy efficient gas-burning boilers that we named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, were installed in the fall of 2023. On these days of record-breaking cold what a pleasure to have a dependable system fully in place!
And our three new boilers have been more than making heat for us; they have been saving us money, as well. Over the last two years, we have seen a 40 percent decrease in our fuel costs, dropping from $17,800 in 2022 to $9,900 in 2024. That means that our boilers have reduced our yearly expenses by nearly $8,000.
There is a lot to regard warmly in our two-year campaign to replace our old boilers, increase our energy efficiency and pay off the costs. We built warm community through the fundraising events that our parishioners led, from the Blue Grass concert with Mike and Terita Reeve, to the return of the Trivia Night with Tim and Tanya Voit, to selling baked goods at the polls in 2023, led by Suzanne Teleha.
The income from the campaign beefed up our financial reserves and made it possible for us to meet general expenses at times when our checking account was low on funds in 2023 and 2024. And the surplus from the matching grant meant that we had more in the bank at the end of 2024 than we did at the start of the year – a situation that we haven’t seen for a very long time. Additionally, the Vestry has set aside about $20,000 from the surplus to fund capital improvements in 2025, with additional funds set aside for the future.
If you continued making regular payments to the Warm Regards Campaign as part of the matching grant incentive and would like to continue your monthly contribution, those funds will go into a dedicated capital improvement fund. New contributions are always welcome and can be made here.
Special thanks to all who worked so hard to make the Warm Regards Campaign a success! Charlese Freeman, our administrator for communications, helped give Frank and Ernie names and faces and kept us on track with a bulletin board, historical video remembrances, and a web page. So many parishioners led and supported our fundraisers and offered gifts that helped the campaign leap forward at various times. And thanks also go to Tim Valera, our sexton, and Dave Kipphut, our chair of buildings and grounds, as well as Finance Chair, Bob Hartung, who managed the project from start to finish.
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