Campaign For Harmony Education Center

Restoration of Elm Heights Elementary School Begins
THE combined home of Harmony Education Center’s administrative offices, Harmony School, and the National School Reform Faculty national office is Bloomington’s historic Elm Heights Elementary School.

Built in 1926, the building housed a public school until 1982. After that it was used for school system storage, then by various tenants such as the United Way, Project Headstart, and an upstart experiment in education called Harmony School.

Eventually Harmony purchased and fixed up the building in 1985, thanks to the financial support of many students who contributed $10 in dimes to purchase the building, and thousands of additional dollars from backers in the surrounding neighborhood and community to make needed repairs. The Elm Heights neighborhood again had a school on Second Street.

Harmony Education Center has now begun a major national Capital Campaign, and one important part is the renovation and expansion of the Elm Heights property. Work started on June 1, 2004, and continued throughout the summer. The first summer’s work entailed mostly exterior elements, such as tuckpointing all of the brick and stone work to seal the building from the elements and erase the ravages of time and weather. In addition, all 118 windows were completely replaced with modern windows that matched the design of the original school.

Doors and entrances were repaired, oak trim was fixed and refinished, concrete was removed and replaced, and by the time school started in early September the exterior looked, perhaps, “better than new.”

The work did not stop there, however. A creative solution to adding more room without altering the design of the original school involved opening up more space on the lower level of the structure. Where previously there were only a few rooms on a lower level there is now another 3,400 square feet of classrooms and storage space.

School is back in session so most work has paused. While new oak trim for the windows has started interior improvements, the real work to upgrade wiring, lighting, the kitchen, the amphitheater and landscaping, and the interior of the classrooms will have to wait until upcoming summers.

With early support and matching funds from a large foundation and an anonymous local donor, the Campaign for Harmony is off to a good start and has been able to jumpstart the renovation. A maintenance endowment to preserve the building and keep it in restored condition is a critical part of the Campaign for Harmony. That endowment, and future restoration work on the building, invite more support from the community.

From Tom Zoss, Director of Institutional Advancement
THANK YOU is a phrase we’ll be using a lot over the next few years as many current and new friends join us to make the Capital Campaign a success.

Harmony Education Center combines the good work of several parts of our growing and diverse organization. The range of local and national programs is explained in this newsletter. Our hope is that every person we reach, whether locally or nationally, will come to see the importance of one or more of our initiatives, and join us in the work we do.

In a campaign that will raise millions of dollars it is important to remember the significance of each individual’s support. Our home base is a historic school that was purchased through contributed dimes from school children. We’ll need dimes as well as larger sums to achieve success.

This list of donors is just a start in recognizing those who feel our work is important, and know they can directly participate in advancing the cause of education, and education reform, by supporting the campaign.

As I began, I end with another THANK YOU.

Please Support the Harmony Education Center Annual Fund
ANNUAL FUNDS are the life blood of an organization because these donations provide operating money to keep our activities funded. All gifts, large and small, combine to yield an amount that is bigger than the sum of its parts because it reflects the good will of the donors toward our organization. This gives your gift a special synergy that is very important to us.

This year’s Annual Fund Drive has a goal of $205,000. Yes, this is a stretch, and it’s one we feel capable of attaining.

For the first time we introduce The Limestone Society/Friends of Harmony. All donors up to the $1000 level will be considered Friends of Harmony. People who make a commitment of $1000 and above will be recognized as members of The Limestone Society, which will acknowledge those Friends who are able to invest in Harmony Education Center at a higher and sustained level.

This kind of ongoing support enables HEC to further its work in each of its four parts: Harmony School, Rhino’s Youth Center, National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), and the Institute for Research (see profiles elsewhere in this issue).

In addition, this year all gifts will be matched at a 3:1 ratio, thanks to the generosity of two challenge grants. Please take advantage of this opportunity to support Harmony at whatever level you’re able and your gift will be tripled.

Each year another group of young adults completes their Senior Project and graduates from Harmony School; more youth from throughout the Bloomington community engage in radio, video, journalism and art projects at Rhino’s; more research is undertaken on school reform techniques at the Institute of Research; and nationally hundreds more teachers and administrators enter the ranks of the NSRF.

Your financial support is a vote of confidence, a vote for youth, and a vote for improving the education system in our nation by enabling Harmony Education Center to continue its good work.

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