Kelley Corner School Preservation
Project Receives LCHIP Grant
Lower Gilmanton Community Club
members Sue Leclerc, Paula Gilman, Carolyn Baldwin, and Lori Baldwin
accepted the LCHIP grant for renovation of the Kelley Corner School
from Governor Maggie Hassan and members of the LCHIP Board.
Photo credit: Perry Smith
Governor Maggie Hassan and Senate President Chuck Morse joined
together to congratulate LCHIP’s most recent grant recipients on
their hard work and successful efforts toward protecting the special
places that define New Hampshire. Governor Hassan observed that
“The Land and Community Heritage Investment Program is critical to
protecting our natural, historical and cultural resources, and I am
proud that we restored funding for LCHIP in 2013 and maintained that
commitment in our current bipartisan budget. For every dollar
invested by LCHIP, we see a significant return on investment through
the economic activity generated by those conservation efforts. This
year’s grants will support important projects across the state that
will preserve our natural beauty and protect our rich history and
vibrant culture.”
The
Lower Gilmanton Community Club, with the Gilmanton School District,
is receiving a $17,250 award in support of its efforts to preserve
and renovate the Kelley Corner School in Lower Gilmanton. The
Kelley Corner School was the first school authorized by the Town in
1778. It is one of two surviving public buildings in Lower
Gilmanton, the first village settled in the Town. (The other is the
First Baptist Church on Route 107, just north of the junction with
Stage Road.). The Lower Gilmanton Community Club has leased the
building from the School District since the late 1940s after schools
in the Town were consolidated and it was no longer used as a school.
Since then it has been used as a meeting place and for neighborhood
events such as the Harvest Supper and educational visits by school
classes.
The
Kelley Corner School project is one of thirty-five awarded funding
in LCHIP’s fifteenth grant round supporting projects ranging from
Northumberland in the North County to Nashua in the south and from
Portsmouth in the east to Claremont in the west. The three and a
half million dollars awarded by LCHIP are being matched by nearly
$20,000,000 in funds from other sources.
Grant
decisions are made by the 18-member LCHIP Board of Directors,
following a rigorous months-long application and review process.
“The LCHIP Board of Directors is always pleased to help with saving
New Hampshire’s historic landmarks and landscapes” observed LCHIP
Board Chairman Doug Cole of DS Cole Growers in Loudon. He
continued: “It is great to see historic buildings rehabilitated to
their original glory and contributing to the local economy again.
Plus, since we all like to eat, protecting farmland is a good
investment.”
About
New Hampshire’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program
The New
Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program is an
independent state authority that provides matching grants to New
Hampshire communities and non-profits to protect and preserve the
state’s most important natural, cultural and historic resources. Its
legislatively mandated mission is to ensure the perpetual
contribution of these resources to the economy, environment, and the
quality of life in New Hampshire. Since its inception in 2000, the
program has provided 372 grants which have helped to protect nearly
200 historic structures and sites and to conserve more than 278,000
acres of land for food production, water quality, ecological values,
timber management and recreation including hunting and fishing.
Grants have been awarded in all parts of the state and in 149 of New
Hampshire’s communities. Thirty-nine million dollars of state money
have leveraged more than $244 million in funds from other sources.
LCHIP grants are supported by fees on four documents recorded at
the Registry of Deeds in every county of the state.
For
more information about LCHIP, visit lchip.org or call
(603)-224-4113.
Obituaries
Wendy Elizabeth “Svarna” Wilkens
GILMANTON - Wendy Elizabeth “Svarna” Wilkens died
peacefully at her Gilmanton home on August 22, 2016 with her family
around her.
Daughter of William B. Wilkens and Laurose (Schulze-Berge) Wilkens
MacFadyen, she was born December 9, 1942 in New York, New York. She
was predeceased by her parents and her brother, William B. Wilkens
Jr. and is survived by two sisters, Joanne Wilkens and Phyllis
Weston of Gilmanton, a brother John Wilkens and numerous nieces and
nephews.
Wendy
graduated from Laconia High School and Sweet Briar College, spending
her junior year in Madrid, Spain. After college she served in the
Peace Corps in Thailand for two years where she taught English and
developed an interest in Eastern religions and philosophy.
Upon
returning home, she earned a Master’s Degree from Boston University
and subsequently taught English as a Second Language at Harvard
Summer School and the University of San Francisco. Wendy was a
founding director of the English Center for International Women at
Mills College in Oakland, California where she taught English for
several years.
Wendy’s
interest moved from education to psychology when she discovered the
work of the pioneer hypnotherapist and psychiatrist Milton Erickson.
She traveled to Arizona to study with Dr. Erickson and was
certified to practice alchemical hypnotherapy, which she later
integrated into her doctoral studies in psychology.
Wendy’s
interest in Eastern philosophy developed into a deep spiritual
practice that inspired her family and friends. Seeking to
understand the relationship of Eastern philosophy to human
psychology, she accompanied Zen Master Seung Sahn on a walking
pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India, and spent time with the
philosopher Rajneesh Osho at his International Meditation Center in
Pune, India. She subsequently earned a PhD in counseling psychology
at the California Institute of Integral Studies integrating her
knowledge of Eastern practices into her own clinical therapy work.
Wendy was a licensed clinical psychologist maintaining private
practices in both Gilmanton, New Hampshire and Carmel, California.
Wendy
lived courageously and independently at her much loved home in
Gilmanton in spite of progressive ALS, and enjoyed the beautiful
views and wildlife that surrounded her. Memorial donations may be
made to the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, PO Box 173,
Holderness, NH 03245.
A
memorial service was held on Saturday, December 10, 2016 at the
Gilmanton Community Church.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services,
164 Pleasant Street, Laconia, N.H. is assisting the family with the
arrangements. For more information and to view an online memorial
go to
www.wilkinsonbeane.com.
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