August 7, 2024
LAKE PLACID – The fourth and final modular unit of the new Lake Placid Thrive and Thrift pantry/thrift arrived on Monday, August 5 as “Crane Day” approaches. Meanwhile, the promised budgets are beginning to arrive.
Jim McKenna, a board member of the Henry Uihlein II and Mildred A. Uihlein Foundation, presented a check for $100,000 to the site of the structure, on Cummings Road next to the Shipman Youth Center, about an hour before the arrival of the modular unit on Monday afternoon. Accepting the check were Thrive and Thrift Board President Jim Koening, Executive Director Linda Young and Board Member Jackie Kelly, Village of Lake Placid Trustee.
McKenna, the pantry/bargain shop, allocates the “fabric of the community” before presenting the check.
“That’s what the Uihlein Foundation is for, you know, network goals,” he said before lining up for a photo.
Also in attendance was Steve Sama, a local developer with Homestead Development Corporation, a Lake Placid-based nonprofit that collaborates with Simplex Homes, a Pennsylvania-based modular framing company, to design and manufacture the building. Homestead and Simplex recently partnered to complete the 22-unit housing progression in Fawn Valley on Wesvalley Road.
Crane Day, scheduled for Thursday, August 22, is when the four modular assemblies will be joined into one and placed on top of the most sensitive foundations already built on site. Luck Brothers Inc. , of Plattsburgh, will take over the crane, according to Sama. In June, the company also used a crane to lift the new steeple at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Lake Placid, where the existing basement pantry is located.
Lake Placid Thrive and Thrift is the new 501(c)(3) nonprofit that grew out of the Ecumenical Charities program, of which Young is the founder and director of the pantry and former Helping Hands Thrift Shop in George.
“We are pleased to be able to continue to serve as we have. “This is incredibly important,” Young said Monday.
The Uihlein Foundation, at Heaven Hill Farm on Bear Cub Lane in Lake Placid, makes grants primarily for education, arts and social services.
“We are very proud and pleased to award this check to the new thrift store,” McKenna said. “He’s right in the hallway of the Uihlein Foundation, doing something for the network and helping. “
Keonig, pastor of Lake Placid Baptist Church, said he was inspired by what Thrive and Thrift gained from the network in such a short amount of time.
“We are very grateful,” he said. I’m blown away by the way it all came together, and it’s actually quite amazing that this network – even as we communicate about the lack of a network here – shows you that there is a genuinely strong backbone in this network. “
Thrive and Thrift has 8 board members: Koenig, Kelly, Ed Dempsey, co-founder of ADK Bridges to Empowerment, Karen Armstrong, assistant librarian at the Lake Placid Public Library, Kathleen Martens, pantry volunteer, and Jessica Seymour, of Lake Placid. Central School District, Jessica Seymour, St. John’s Catholic and Jessica Seymour. Agnes. Church Rev. John Yonkovig and North Elba City Councillor Rick Preston.
They plan to open the new construction in October.
Thrive and Thrift is being built on the former LPCSD skate park and basketball courts, adjacent to the Shipman Youth Center. The LPCSD electorate decided to donate this land to the City of North Elba in June by a vote of 390 to 25. North Elba will own the construction and will have a long-term lease with Thrive and Thrift.
Meanwhile, fundraising continues. As of July, about $700,000 had been raised, adding a $250,000 commitment from New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. It is still known when the state investment will arrive and more budget will be needed to furnish and operate the building.
The Adirondack Foundation in Lake Placid is the initial 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor of the allocation and continues the fundraising crusade for Thrive and Thrift. Donations can be made online at adirondackfoundation. org and checks can be made payable to The Adirondack Foundation with the fund calling in the note. Gifts of inventory and qualified IRA charitable distributions are also accepted.
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