Dear Friends Near and Far,
August / September 2021 Update
South Square needs a new roof this fall and we’ve already raised over $60,000 towards our $80,000 goal. We’re writing today to ask for your help to reach that full amount in the next few weeks. Thank you for your consideration!
Roof Project
We discovered a tear in our roof last fall, which served notice that our existing roof had, at around 40 years old, reached the end of its lifespan. We’re grateful it lasted as long as it did!
We applied for several grants over the summer and are grateful to have received $10,000 from the Worth County Development Association (WCDA). Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with our two grant applications to State of Iowa National Historic Registry-related programs (not unexpected as this was our first time applying for these highly technical and competitive grants—we learned much in the process and are optimistic about our chances for future projects).
As such, we’ve de-scoped from this project a commercial, rooftop air conditioner from the gym (we’ll always be able to add one later) and modified the scope of work to be done on the roof. The selected contractor will be installing the new roof later this fall—likely in late-September—as we believe it’s critical to get it on before another winter. This new roof, with very basic maintenance, should last for another 40 years.
Towards this amount, we’re putting $40,000 of South Square savings, along with the $10,000 from the WCDA and $10,000 in recent pledges from private donors in the community.
Your Support
We’d love to have your support to help us reach our remaining $20,000 gap. We’ll be publicly recognizing roof project donors at South Square this fall and would love if multiple branches and/or generations of the same family pooled donations—or multiple members of the same STA graduating class. We’ve always felt deeply that the building has continually served to bring people together and the nature of this need is no different.
Whatever amount you decide on, we and the rest of the community are most grateful for your help. Please make checks payable to South Square, at PO Box 52 St Ansgar IA 50472, or feel free to donate via the button on this page.
(If possible, please submit donations by September 15. Thank you!)
2021 and Beyond
2021 is on track to be our highest-grossing year ever—buoyed by strong demand for our long-term rentable spaces (we’re “all full” on our first floor and more than half full on our second), and by a big Town & Country Day weekend concert series that saw 500+ attendees. We’re looking forward to a busy fall, full of many visits by dancers and wrestlers and coffee ladies and concert goers and hall walkers and martial artists and birthday party goers and everyone else that makes South Square part of their life.
In terms of future building needs, once we get the new roof on, we’ll pause and celebrate before thinking about next year’s goal of applying water sealant to the building’s outer walls (fortunately a mostly DIY project) and hiring a masonry contractor for some long-overdue tuckpointing and brick replacement.
(Note: If we end up in the fortunate place of raising “too much” money this fall, we’ll simply roll that amount into next year’s project).
Any old building requires a fair share of TLC, and ours is no different, but we’re grateful for all the time it’s allowed us to get South Square “up and running” before having to make our first major investments in its roof, bricks, and mortar. We are grateful and excited that the building has become, just as we’d originally hoped, the social and cultural heart of the community. Again, thank you for your support! –and as we like to say, “Onward and upward!”
Our very best,
The South Square Board
Ashley Demaris, Tyler McKinley, Tammy Kofoot, Sheila Adams, and Dana Wold