Week in Review, January 11, 2018 - Wells House
Dawn Collings * stood in for Sandy Cohen this week to give us an overview of Wells House. Dawn serves as Wells House Coordinator/Facility Rentals Manager for the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center.
Dawn began her presentation with a few trivia questions about the history of the A.Z. Wells House. Joe St. Jean impressed us all with his inside knowledge as he answered nearly all of the questions! The Wells house was built in 1909 by early developer W.T. Clark. It was sold in 1919 to pioneer hardware and orchard businessman A.Z. Wells. It was commonly referred to in the community as the Cobblestone Castle. By donation from AZ Wells, it became the first home of Wenatchee Valley College, serving as the center of student activity during the 1950s. In 1973, the Wells House was added to the National Registry of Historic Homes.
The house is now owned by the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center. The museum has a Long term goal is to undertake a complete restoration so it can be a functioning historic home with consistent open hours for the public, space for permanent and rotating exhibits, event space and possibly long term rental for office space on the second floor.
Phase one of the reconstruction is nearly done, including wiring which was supported by $3,000 funding from Downtown Wenatchee Rotary. The hardwood floor, plumbing and bathrooms on the first or second floor are completed. The master bedroom is gorgeous.
Dawn encouraged people to get involved by joining committees such as maintenance, cleaning, construction, tours, sponsoring exhibits and events. The house can comfortably seat 25-40 people for an indoor event with another 200 hundred on the outside grounds. The spring tea is an example of an annual, popular event.
Wells house is your house, to be used and valued by the community. For more information, contact Dawn Collings at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center. http://www.wenatcheevalleymuseum.org/wells-house/
* Dawn was introduced by Tom McNair , who gave some interesting facts about her. She is a native of Eastern Washington, having resided in East Wenatchee for the past 35 years. She has a background in city government, events and marketing, and has served in various capacities throughout the Valley. Four years ago, Dawn opened her own business, "A Real Basket Case", creating custom gift baskets. Last August she was hired as the Wells House Coordinator/Facility Rentals Manager for the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. In addition to her basket business and her position with the Museum, Dawn is also a Commissioner for Douglas County Fire District #2, serving as the Commission Chair this year. She is married, has three children, and two adult grandchildren.
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Rich Peters recognized Rotarians who are doing great things in our community, and displayed and a photo of Russ Speidel from 1964. Susan Albert will be on the ESD board. Word of the week is “Senectitude”; a nice word for old age.
Respectfully submitted by Appleseed reporter, Dawn Davies (with minor edits by Frank); and last week, Dee Curcio.
Liv's final meeting.....
Olivia Greenwood-Jack returned home to Australia on January 12.
Jim Russell announced that he and his wife Karen are taking a leave of absence from the club to be with their daughter in Seattle. Click photo to hear Jim's remarks.
Message from Jim. "My wife and I have decided to move to the west side of the mountains to take better care of our daughter, who as most of you know has early onset Alzheimer’s. We love Wenatchee and Wenatchee Rotary but we it’s much more important and meaningful for us to focus on taking care of her. We are temporarily moving over to Seattle for a month to work on the move and consequently I’m taking a leave of absence from Wenatchee Rotary on Friday, 1/12/18.
We have a plan to continue the Milot Rotary project and the money to support is still available in the Wenatchee Rotary Foundation. Garry Arseneault is taking my place, and he’s well qualified to do it. He visited Milot twice to help with water sanitation projects and has been following our progress this year.
This is the transition report from me as I hand it over to Garry. Keslyn’s email below contains his progress to date, his plans for the next few days and his work to provide an estimate of ongong costs. It consists of my introduction, Keslyn’s work plans this week, his progress over last weekend and his work to get estimates for the remaining work in the next stage. We have sent him or spent all the $5,000 we budgeted and he has $101 US remaining. We believe we have more funds remaining to continue the project for the coming year. We would like to present a Board report for next Thursday, January 18 at 4:30 pm regarding future work and budgets.
It’s been a deeply satisfying experience to serve you all in the project. I’ll be available by cell and email. " Jim
We have a plan to continue the Milot Rotary project and the money to support is still available in the Wenatchee Rotary Foundation. Garry Arseneault is taking my place, and he’s well qualified to do it. He visited Milot twice to help with water sanitation projects and has been following our progress this year.
This is the transition report from me as I hand it over to Garry. Keslyn’s email below contains his progress to date, his plans for the next few days and his work to provide an estimate of ongong costs. It consists of my introduction, Keslyn’s work plans this week, his progress over last weekend and his work to get estimates for the remaining work in the next stage. We have sent him or spent all the $5,000 we budgeted and he has $101 US remaining. We believe we have more funds remaining to continue the project for the coming year. We would like to present a Board report for next Thursday, January 18 at 4:30 pm regarding future work and budgets.
It’s been a deeply satisfying experience to serve you all in the project. I’ll be available by cell and email. " Jim