By Wendy Smith-Rogers

The annual fund-raising effort is underway. As of this printing donations have exceeded $13,000! However, that’s from only 10% of the Hidden Meadows families. Imagine what we could accomplish with the median beautification, scholarships, community events, and Neighbors Helping Neighbors if everyone gave just $25. Most donations have been $25 or $50. Three anonymous donations for $500 have arrived as well as three for $1000. Remember that the Hidden Meadows Community Foundation (HMCF) is a 501c3, tax exempt organization, so your donations are tax deductible and, unlike State and Federal taxes, all of the money raised will be spent entirely in our community.

A Town Hall meeting was held on Saturday, April 8 for community members interested in knowing more about the Foundation’s goals for 2017 and how the funds raised will be spent. The following presentations were made:

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Christina Stendall, chairperson, spoke about the community support available for short-term emergencies ranging from hospitalization of a family member, to a home fire. Neighbors can refer neighbors or residents can self-refer. For more information, contact her at tinahelwig@gmail.com. In the event of an emergency requiring more funds than our current budget, the Foundation will sponsor a community event to raise specific funds for the family in need.

Community Events

Denise Haase spoke on behalf of co-chair Susan Sciacca and herself as well as all the event chairpersons. An extensive schedule of events is noted in the monthly Hidden Meadows News. This year the chairpersons have added a progressive dinner in December and summer movie nights, thanks to many volunteers who are willing to help with both. There will be no Parade of Homes this year since in recent years, most of the homes were shown in the past.

Scholarships

Sarah Sealey confirmed the interest of several Hidden Meadows high school seniors in the annual scholarship. Depending on the number of qualified applicants and the money received from donations, the Foundation hopes to increase the amount given to each honoree beyond the current $1000. If you have any questions, contact Sarah at sarah@bretandsarah.com. The Foundation will only accept applications from current Hidden Meadows residents.

Median Beautification

Patrick Reilly shared a power point presentation about his goals for improving the appearance of the medians. His priorities are to make it distinctive, easy to maintain and sustainable for many years to come. The next immediate steps are to form a committee to advise and organize the steps needed to accomplish the beautification efforts. If you are interested, contact Patrick at pbreilly@gmail.com

Although concerns were raised about the status of the golf course at the four-way stop, that is not the responsibility of the Foundation, but rather the owner of the golf course. Updates on the golf course will be shared in future articles in the Hidden Meadows News.

All the above-mentioned missions of the Foundation need your support. With the dissolution of the ARO, there are no more annual dues. The various HOAs in the community collect annual dues for maintenance and beautification of those specific neighborhoods. In this edition of the Hidden Meadows News, a donation envelope is enclosed for those who have not yet made a contribution to the HMCF. Although donations will be accepted at any time, the budgets for the four missions will be determined at the end of May. It is our hope to have enough donations to make a positive difference quickly in the beautification of the medians as well as support the other three missions. The Foundation is thrilled with and grateful for the support of so many community members by giving of their time and financial resources to make this committee the special place that it is.