Artifact boxes failing as they soak up water covering the floor.
On Friday night a pipe leak flooded our lab, leaving an inch of water across the entire first floor of the building. As many of you know, we were already crammed into a space far too small, unable to expand our public outreach activities, like lab nights (every Tuesday, 6-9 pm) or properly house our study collections and exhibits. When we discovered the leak Saturday morning, we jumped into action. By the end of the day, with the help of a handful of volunteers, we had addressed the immediate needs: getting things off the floor, removing the soaked books, cardboard boxes, and soaking up as much water as we could. Now comes the tough part – fighting mold, repairing the damage, and keeping these treasures accessible to students, volunteers, and you!
An inch of water on the floor “whicks up” almost eight inches into the boxes.
The Fairfield Foundation is in crisis mode as we respond to the biggest threat we’ve ever faced – and we need your help. Water-soaked carpets and inadequate ventilation are forcing us to move much of our lab into temporary storage (unfortunately our future home at the Edge Hill Service Station is still far from completion). This move will ensure we avoid potential mold and water damage to our remarkable library, artifact collections, and the records of over a decade of archaeological research at Fairfield Plantation, but it also keeps these learning tools out of reach; the loss of this space limits our connection with the community. We are asking for your help to ensure we keep that connection alive, continuing our lab nights, internships, and research while we recover from this crisis.
How Can You Help?
1. Click on the Donation button below and make a tax-deductable contribution to the Fairfield Foundation.
2. Press the “Like”, “Send” and/or “Tweet” buttons below to share this post with your friends, family, and followers, and ask them for their help.
Volunteers help move parts of the lab to off-site storage.
Your support will help with the costs of this emergency and ensure we properly repair the damage to our collections. Insurance may help, but will take precious time. Your immediate assistance will help assure the safe recovery of our lab space and collections – and maintain our connection with the community.
If you can help, at no matter what level, please do. This is a difficult time for us as we are raising funds for our annual payment, hosting our open house at the station (Today! April 26 from 5:30 to 7:30), and paying down the debt from the stabilization of our future home.
If you’ve ever wondered when your donation would make the biggest difference – that time is now.
Please make a donation today.
Sincerely – Dave and Thane
Documents, artifacts, and books awaiting transport to storage – temporarily out of reach of our volunteers.
We sincerely appreciate the outpouring of support that is helping us deal with this crisis. Thank you for all that you are doing to help.
I will try to get back to help on Friday, today is stuffed full: dr appointment in Williamsburg for grandpa, making food for foreign language banquet at GHS, piano and voice lessons for Amy, and foreign language banquet this evening.
Thane,
Sorry to hear about the pipe break and flooding. Would it help to bring some storage boxes tonight? I will pass along the link to your website. See you at Edgehill later today for the event.
David