The food pantry shelves are filling up, the heritage commission is planning its next historical marker and the snowmobile club is a step closer to rebuilding a dilapidated bridge.
Those are just a few of the ways an anonymous donor has boosted several community organizations in Chichester.
At the end of April, Town Clerk and Tax Collector Evelyn Pike went into the town office on a Monday morning and found an envelope with a hand-written note inside.
“Evelyn, please distribute these for me. Thank you,” she read from it. “No name or anything.”
Inside were eight checks – for $1,000 apiece – made out to various community organizations in town: the Chichester Youth Association, Chichester/Loudon Bee Hole Beavers Snowmobile Club, food pantry, historical society, Chichester Central School Drama Club, the fire department, the heritage commission and the library.
Most of the recipients haven’t yet figured out exactly how they’ll spend their chunk, the directors said. But for organizations that mostly run on shoestring budgets, the donations were a more-than-welcome surprise.
Lucille Noel, who accepted the checks on behalf of the heritage commission and library, said both organizations are thinking of uses that will be directly beneficial to the public.
She said the heritage commission’s annual municipal budget is about $650. Its members have been studying the little-known Webster Mills area along the Suncook River that used to be “a thriving little industrial complex” between the 1820s and 1860s. These days, however, there’s not much sign of what used to be there.
Once they’ve compiled a history, the heritage commission members hoped to establish an informative marker there, although “we knew we didn’t have the money to put up anything really elaborate,” so they were planning on a painted wooden sign, Noel said.
Thanks to the anonymous donor, that plan was scrapped in favor of a proper metal sign, she said.
The library trustees talked about replacing the hard, metal folding chairs in the library’s meeting room with something more comfortable, Noel said. That room is used by everything from the writer’s club to the garden club to the Lions Club, so the chairs would be broadly used.
“In both cases, the money is being used to put it back in the public eye,” Noel said.
Librarian Lisa Prizio was also thinking of boosting the summer reading program and adding interesting games and science activities for the youth.
“When somebody gives money anonymously, it’s just such a beautiful thing,” she said, “because they’re not looking for people to notice them. They just want to do good.”
The Chichester/Loudon Bee Hole Beavers Snowmobile Club is planning a use that will benefit a wide cross-section of people.
President Larry Ricker said the club has been working to save $12,000 to replace a snowmobile bridge near the Class Six Wiggins Road in Loudon. With the $1,000 donation and a grant he’s hoping to hear back about in June, the fundraising would be done, he said.
The bridge is used by snowmobilers traveling the lengths of the state, and it’s supported by two telephone poles that are cracked and rotting.
“It’s a major trail from the southern part of the state all the way up to the northern part,” Ricker said. “It’s in what we call Corridor 15.”
Ricker said the bridge was safe for use through this winter – or it would have been, had there been any snow – but it’s starting to become dilapidated. In addition to snowmobilers, people walk dogs over the bridge and the Loudon Fire Department may use it to access fires, Ricker said.
The new version will be supported by steel I-beams with 4-by-6-inch pressure treated planks on top, he said.
Pike, the town clerk who distributed the donation checks, said no one knew for sure who the anonymous donor was, and they didn’t spend much time speculating.
“They were just in awe, you know? Wow,” she said.
One thing she does know, as the person in charge of the food pantry, is that it was good timing. This time of year is typically tough for pantries, and the donation will help fill out the shelves.