Friends of Moeckel Pond — Update December 2016
The Restoration of Moeckel Pond team kicked into high gear in 2016
starting with the Wetland Permit approval in February. Meeting this
mark was a waypoint for the project because the data, reports, and
engineering needed to get this approval began in 2013.
In March, the Windham Endowment Environmental Committee met with Kevin
Cyr of Cyr Lumber to plan the Cyr Lumber "Give a Dam Raffle". Kevin and
Brian offered an incredible Weber grill and other businesses stepped up,
creating a prize value of over $2,000. The raffle raised $8,000 for the
pond and produced amazing local media coverage for the fundraiser and the
project.
In May, we completed a project started in the summer of 2014. The
Troup, lead by John Connors and artfully created by Mike Harnois, took sixs
hours of interviews filmed by Kelly Yucupicio of Windham Cable and
created two incredible videos. In June, the committee previewed the
video at a Windham Economic Development Committee meeting. It proved an
effective communication tool which led to WEDC support in our grant
writing efforts. We used it again in September, presenting to the
Windham Garden Club, and you can see the video on our local cable
station, You Tube, or at your group meeting (upon request).
Moeckel Pond was featured this fall in the Windham Magazine thanks to the
outstanding advocacy of Peter Griffin. Peter then again combined his
love of community and art to help the Windham Artist Association hold
the first, and we hope annual, Pop-Up Art Gallery at Searles School and
Chapel in November. Over 20 local artists participated and booth fees
were donated to Pond restoration. It was a perfect merger of art, history, and
nature.
As we approach the end of the year, we are excited to announce that the
final dam design has been submitted to the State of NH Dam Bureau for
approval. With this permit in hand, our last major hurdle is capital.
We are pursuing funding sources that we hope will make 2017 an
exciting year.
– Friends of Moeckel Pond
(Back to the overview of the project.)