Musarium study gets boost from local foundation

The proposed Allegheny Musarium project has received a donation of $25,000 for a feasibility study from the DeFrees foundation.

Musarium Board President and founder Nancy Mooney said the Musarium board received the official word from the DeFrees Foundation recently.

The board now needs to raise an additional $10,000 to have enough funds for the feasibility study. Board members have already raised $6,500 from stakeholders. Other funds have been donated by the Sokolski foundation, the Conarro Foundation, Betts Industries and Anderson Construction. Additional letters will go out to stakeholders asking for help in raising the funds needed, according to Mooney.

Mooney thinks the pledge from the DeFrees Foundation should help not only financially, but in terms of how the project is viewed by the public.

"What we're hoping this does is reassure them that we’'re a valid program," she said.

The money comes to the Musarium in the form of a pledge, none of which are collected until all of the money is raised.

" We are pleased that the DeFrees Foundation has taken the lead in supporting the Musarium and we hope that others in the community will follow their lead," Musarium Board Member Irish smith said.

Mary Garvey, a DeFrees Family Foundation board member for 17 years, said, " It is with great pleasure that we have awarded the Allegheny Musarium Association a grant in the amount of $25,000 in order to proceed with their feasibility study. We would like to see the entire community follow suit and support this worthwhile project. The foundation feels that our founder, Joe DeFrees, would have loved this project and probably would have wanted to be the driving force behind it and help bring it to completion. The Allegheny Musarium Association has done a wonderful job planning and executing the groundwork for this fabulous project."

Garvey pointed to Branson, Mo., as an example of remote town that, after building a local dam, developed a tourist-based economy and now boasts 40 some hotels and welcomes thousands of tourists each year.

"The Musarium has all the same elements of success," Garvey said.

Musarium Business Manager and Chairman of the Fundraising Committee John Fitzgerald said, "We are extremely pleased and encouraged by this significant pledge from the DeFrees Family Foundation. With this pledge we are very close to our goal of having an independent feasibility study conducted, probably by the beginning of November."

Fitzgerald said with the study completed and the Musarium location finalized, "we continue to make progress towards our mission of reviving the local economy. Imagine the economic benefits of having a year-round destination attraction that will bring 500,000 tourists to our area each year."

Fitzgerald encourages the community to support the project.

"Hopefully, other organizations, businesses, and individuals will follow the lead of the DeFrees Foundation and become stakeholders in the future of Warren County," Fitzgerald said.

***Original article and photo by Victoria Barone, Staff Writer, Times Observer and reprinted here with permission.***