When you donate to eligible endowment funds at the Marshall County Community Foundation on Thursday, May 25, 10% will be added to your gift! Do you need more reasons to donate? Here are mine…
I became a MCCF board member because I see the transformational work the MCCF accomplishes and knew some of the important community leaders that had served before me. Leaders such as Richard Ford, John Zeglis, Carolyn Kline and Barbara Winters. The privilege of working with them or following in their footsteps has been an honor. I strive to do justice to them.
I serve on the MCCF grants committee where I see how unrestricted funds are used to support causes in the community. Through this I’ve learned about many of the good people and organizations throughout our county that make a difference. I’ve been able to support fledgling groups like the Culver Community High School Archery Club and Culver Main Street get off the ground, and helped the Culver Boys and Girls Club and the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Council expand their mission. Do you love the West Pavilion on Lake Maxinkuckee? A MCCF grant helped restore that Culver treasure!
I also serve on the MCCF investment committee where I see the time, effort and careful consideration that goes into marshaling the Foundation’s funds to do the most good while keeping an eye on the conservation of their value.
I became a MCCF contributor for various reasons. I have given to the unrestricted fund to help support those groups that come before the grants committee. I have donated to dedicated funds that support causes with missions I believe in, such as Hospice and Habitat for Humanity. And finally, I have contributed to remember and honor friends. I served on the Culver Chamber of Commerce board of directors for over a decade and lost two friends who were fellow board members during that time. For that reason I have contributed to honor the memory of those friends, Ron Tusing and Marianne Ransdell, both of which have memorial funds that give scholarships to CCHS students.
For those of you familiar with Marshall County Community Foundation, you’ll see Marshall County Match Madness as an opportunity to make your charitable donation go further. For those of you unfamiliar with the Foundation, get to know them!
On Thursday, May 25, make sure to donate at: www.marshallcountycf.org and 10% will be added to your gift. Or, you can go to the Community Resource Center at 510 West Adams Street, Plymouth, and talk to nonprofits and MCCF staff and ask any questions you may have.
Remember, Marshall County Match Madness is on May 25. Let’s make this a stellar day for Culver!
Kevin L. Berger
MCCF Board Member
For those interested, this is a great way to make your donation dollars go just a little bit farther!
Unless you have worked at Easterday Construction, you probably don’t know what the Pony Barn is… The offices of Easterday Construction are on what used to be Russell L. Easterday’s farm. We’re still technically at the west edge of Culver, but there used to be a bit more of a development gap! When I was growing up, my great grandparents lived in the brick house on the northwest corner of Ohio & Cass Streets with nothing blocking their view of the lumberyard site.
The Pony Barn is the only remaining structure from when the property was a working farm. Some of the other buildings have been built on the foundations of former farm buildings and there is still the vague remains of a cattle barn in the woods at the back of the property, but that structure has mostly collapsed and rotted away. My great grandfather continued to do some cattle farming as a side venture, but he moved his farm up to northeast corner of School Street and Hwy 10. The barn that stood on that site has been gone for years, but I can vaguely remember that before the high school was built, Great Grandpa Easterday’s Herford cattle grazed on that property at the end of Slate Street.
The Pony Barn has remained as a viable structure for shade and shelter over the years, though it’s been more of a home to wildlife in the past few years. We store some miscellaneous shingles, pipe fittings and forming materials in it. The interior has the original framing and you can see the stalls with the nawed boards from when farm animals were housed there. There are the remains of nearly petrified straw and hay in the corners, but they are so old that even the mice aren’t interested in them.
The original tin roof has had some damaged patched here and there over the years, but this past winter’s wind storms did a real number on it. Patching was no longer an option. Fortunately, we had enough left over VSR roofing to reroof the entire building. And what do you know? It was Easterday Green!
I have no idea how old it is. It has to be one of the older structures in Culver. It still needs some work, as many of the siding boards are failing. I intend to do some additional minor patching to keep the structure “alive”, for the memories if nothing else. It remains an interesting reminder of times gone by and of my great grandfather.