Schoolhouse is looking for a lift

Published 12:42 pm Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Sequim Museum & Arts volunteer director Judy Reandeau Stipe announced earlier this week the launch of a “Kickstarter” campaign to raise $60,000 to add a vertical lift to the Dungeness Schoolhouse.

The lift, Stipe says, will make the building ADA compliant and the upstairs auditorium accessible to all. The $60,000 figure will cover the entire project from start to finish including the architect, permits, concrete base, mechanical apparatus, enclosure shaft, doors, security gates electrical and labor, she said. “This addition is desperately needed in our retirement community.”

A recent weekend function saw six people needing special transportation up the schoolhouse stairs.

To keep the Victorian character of the 120-year-plus schoolhouse, the lift would be enclosed in a shaft located between the fire escape and an existing ramp on the north side of the building,” Stipe said, and the finished siding will be the same as the school’s exterior.

Becky Horst, museum volunteer and actress, came up with the idea to raise money for the lift through Kickstarter after a Reader’s Theatre+ fundraiser spearheaded by Shelley Taylor, began a dedicated fund. More than $6,000 was raised in seven weeks to start the fundraising.

Horst went online with “Kickstarter” on Jan. 27.

The pledge a donation, go to www.kickstarter.com/projects/sequimmuseum/make-the-historic-dungeness-schoolhouse-stage-ADA.