Dear Green Space Friends!
Thank you all for your support in the effort to preserve the green space at the former location of the Romeo Middle School at 297 Prospect Street! Here is an update on some recent and upcoming actions.
Fundraising Update
As you know, our goal is to raise $500,000 by June 1, 2024. As of today (3/14), we have raised $175,000. The remaining amount to be matched is $62,500.
We need $262,500! Please pledge if you haven’t already and spread the word to others and invite them to pledge at the link here.
Check out our Supporters page. Wouldn’t you love to see your name and your business logo here?
Strategies for Acquisition and Preservation as Public Green Space
As you may know, the Romeo Village Board of Trustees meeting on February 26th included some discussion of the Village potentially working with a party to partially develop the property. GSOPS confirms that our mission is to acquire and preserve as green space the entire 4.6-acre property for the community. Therefore, GSOPS is researching other methods of acquisition to meet our June 1 deadline and ensure our donors’ money is used for the purpose intended. We are talking with Six Rivers Land Conservancy for their advice and potential assistance. Learn more about Six Rivers here. We encourage you to support their work in Macomb County and the region.
The Gray House Event – March 7th
We had a beautiful evening at the Gray House with our enthusiastic and generous donors. We brought in $80,000 and were inspired by the outpouring of support.
Thank you so much to our host Dale Wells and to everyone who made this event a huge success. Special thanks to our event committee: Mary Hummons, Nancy O’Brien, Elizabeth Miller, Kelly Stephens and Kim Wing.
This Place Matters – Benefit at the Abbey on Main on April 19th
We hope you and yours will join us for this celebration of our history and an exploration of our future!
This Place Matters
Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to show how we feel about the land at 297 Prospect Street. We have adopted this campaign developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. To quote the Trust: “Everyone has places that are important to them. Places they care about. Places that matter. The National Trust has used THIS PLACE MATTERS® to promote public awareness of the importance of maintaining, preserving, and recognizing the historic and cultural significance of locations and properties across the country. We began using THIS PLACE MATTERS® in 2008 to engage the broader preservation community, empower people to celebrate places meaningful to them, and draw awareness to threatened places”. Learn more here and follow the hashtag #ThisPlaceMatters on social media.
Notes from the Green Space on Prospect Street Meeting – February 22, 2024
Thank you to everyone who participated in our meeting at the Romeo Bruce Washington Senior Center last month. We had 30 people in attendance. Richard Cory, Donna Folland, Rob Wing, and Franco Folino facilitated the meeting. Here is a summary of the discussion:
- Welcome to the Four County Community Foundation! GSOPS has a signed agreement with Four County Community Foundation (4CCF) as fiduciary for acquisition fundraising and we plan to create an endowed fund in the future for ongoing support of greenspace in Romeo.
- We are focused on collecting pledges that will be fulfilled at the time there is a purchase agreement in place for the property. At the time of the meeting, pledges were at $40,000 out of our goal of $500,000. We all agreed on the urgency of getting the word out about the project and bringing in major donations.
- We discussed the upcoming event on March 7th that was geared towards people who made or were thinking about making significant donations to GSOPS.
- Introduced the Event Committee and passed around a sign-up sheet for people interested in helping with future events, including an event at the Abbey on Main on April 19th.
- Reported great success distributing posters and post cards to businesses throughout the Village with the help of volunteers.
- Strategic communication with the Board of Education and Village Board continues, making sure everyone is updated regularly. The leadership team is trying to schedule a meeting with the Village President to discuss potential terms of closing on the property, including when pledge money becomes available and the placement of deed restrictions to ensure the property will not be developed in the future.
- It was great to see Village Trustees Nolan Kare and Matt Edwards at the meeting. Nolan encouraged folks to let the Village Board know they support the GSOPS vision.
Volunteers Needed
- We need help distributing information cards door-to-door throughout Romeo – we’re looking for volunteers and a captain for each quadrant of the Village
- Assistance with April 19th event – we’ll connect you with the event committee
Next GSOPS Community Meeting
Thursday, March 28 at 7 pm at the Silver Room
Romeo Community Center, 361 Morton Street, Romeo, MI, 48065
Please bring your friends, family members, or neighbors!
Keep in Touch!
Please get in touch with any questions, comments, or ideas. We love to hear from you!
https://www.greenspaceromeo.org/contact-us/
or email at: GreenSpaceRomeo@gmail.com
