Save the Potato House!
That’s the name of a GoFundMe campaign that launched Friday and is trying to raise $56,000 for one of the last heritage buildings in Williams Lake.
Treasurer for the Potato House Nikki Cockwill said the 2017 wildfire season occurred during prime fundraising time which resulted in them defaulting on their mortgage.
“We had an amazing couple come to us and say that they would pay for the home and we could pay them back very slowly, on our own terms basically, and we just couldn’t do it because of the fires, so we’ve been trying our best to make up the payment and we still haven’t been able to. All we can do is our regular payment and they’ve come under some hardship, and obviously not getting the $10,000 we owe them was a hardship,” Cockwill said.
“We were given three years to find a new funder or raise the money and we’ve been doing everything we can to raise that money because we want the Potato House to be around for a while. We want to be able to offer everyone the composting and the soil amendment and the super fun garden parties and the garden bed rentals, but we just haven’t been able to do it ourselves and the Board felt it was time to bring our community in on the struggles we’ve been having and hopefully we can solve this problem now as a community.”
Anyone who wishes to help can donate online or directly through the Credit Union.
The Potato House will be hosting their Pirate Party AGM on Sept. 19 starting at 6pm.
“It incidentally happens to be international talk like a pirate day which is my favorite day,” Cockwill said.
“So I suggested that we make it pirate themed and everybody jumped on board, and we’re going to have a really fun pirate party.”