WE DID IT!

Because of your support – and the gifts of more than 600 PSA members and friends – we presented a check for $1 Million to Philmont Scout Ranch and ceremonially broke ground for the Silver Sage Staff Activity Center during our annual meeting on October 13th in Dallas, Texas. We did this a year ahead of schedule. The ink on the floor-plans was barely dry. At Philmont the earth-moving, re-bar and concrete work has already begun.

THANK YOU!

Our actual fundraising total – cash and pledges – stands at just over $1 million. You, and more than 600 others, have been very generous.

But we are not done yet…

At the Ranger Department’s 50th Anniversary this summer the group launched a special campaign to give a legacy gift from the Rangers to Philmont: a special fireplace for the Staff Activity Center. Rangers from the full history of the department have been asked to participate and donations are still being accepted.

We also still have a ways to go, because several donors have stepped forward to help remodel the staff area at PTC. Still others are pledging their support to help maintain these new facilities by adding to the Chuck and Judy Walneck maintenance fund so that future repairs to the staff center will not be a burden to the Ranch.

If you made a pledge, but have not completed it yet, please continue to help with your regular payments (we are sending reminders). If you have not had the opportunity to give yet, please pledge your support today – we’re wrapping this campaign up on December 31st and our new PSA President, Jim “Cuda” Lynch is looking for new ways we can help Philmont!

Thank you for all you do for Philmont and have a Wonderful Holiday Season and Blessed New Year!

What will the Ranger legacy be?

For fifty years, the Ranger Department has made an impact on participants, and Philmont as a whole. As we celebrate this historic milestone, we have been given a challenge to leave a tangible commemoration of that impact.

The Philmont Staff Association, in conjunction with Ranch Management, is in the process of finalizing the plans for the new Staff Center, to be built adjacent to Tent City. As part of the planning for the 50th Anniversary Ranger Reunion, our committee decided that we wanted to leave a physical legacy at the Ranch. We chose to fund the centerpiece of the Staff Center: the grand fireplace.

To do so, we’ve accepted the challenge to raise $50,000 for the 50th anniversary.

The fireplace is being built using stone hauled off Baldy Mountain by the 2007 Rangers. Our legacy is to fund this enduring memorial to past and future Philmont Rangers and staff.

Please join me in making this legacy possible.

Mike Waggoner
Chief Ranger 2002-2005
50th Anniversary Ranger Reunion Chairman

Thanks to you we’re oh so close to being able to accept the match from the Mabee Foundation. To date we have over $760,000 of cash in hand and enough pledges coming in by the end of the year to put us on the peak of success in our million dollar capital campaign. Thank you!

There’s still time for you to get involved. You can help by making a gift online today.

Thanks for your support!

Joe Leisz

We are oh, so close…

As the April issue of HIGH COUNTRY goes to press, Philmont Director of Program Mark Anderson and Property and Facilities Superintendant Jim Kutz are meeting with architects to iron out the details for the new Staff Activity Center. Preliminary drawings should be on their desks this month. And why are they having those meetings now? Because the PSA stands on the verge of success at what many thought we could never do—raise $1 MILLION for Philmont! And in November, if we are successful in our efforts, construction will begin on this much-needed and long overdue facility—an astoundingly great gift from the Philmont Staff Association of today to the Philmont staff members of tomorrow.

We are oh, so close, but we aren’t there yet.

As of mid-March, we stand just about $80,000 short of our fundraising goal. Less than ten percent of our original target of $1 million remains to be pledged. Here are some of the benefactors who have gotten us this far:

An anonymous donor contributed $200,000 to name the building the “Silver Sage Center” in honor of the inaugural class of PSA award recipients: Chope and Virginia Phillips, Joe Davis, and Boss Sanchez. Subsequent award recipients will be recognized with plaques inside the center.

Three supporters, H.L. Hembree, Jim MacGillivray and John F. Murphy, each contributed at the Black Mountain Level, naming the Great Room and some of the other features in the center. Five donated funds at the Bear Mountain Level. The Taylor Family will name the building’s wrap-around porch. Hugh R. Brewer’s support will dedicate the computer room; Dwight Stein’s donation names the TV room. The OATC staff honors long-time staffers Gene Schnell and Steve Willis with the Activities Office, and memorial gifts in honor of late Ranch Committee member and Scouter Bruce Walcutt will name the training and conference room.

David Cope, Lee Huckstep, Frank Koranda, William Lockwood, Ed Pease, Chris Rautman, Alan Rolley, and Wink Sharpe have given their support at the Baldy Mountain level to name tables and benches on the porch. Other significant contributors include Frank Arnold, Scott Beckett, Ned Gold, Jr., Daniel Miller, Roy Murphy, Bill and Sandra Spice, and Scott and Denise Toney.

And there are many, many more to whom we say: thank you! More than 500 donors—about 20% of our membership—have pledged or made contributions to this project to date.

There is also time for YOU to get your name in the building: on a room, on a table or a bench, or on a paver. Gifts of any and every amount are needed—and appreciated. There are still many opportunities for sponsorships within the center. Please visit the PSA “Capital Campaign” to pledge your support in 2007 and learn the latest about this important way to give back to Philmont.

Your final chance to help with this project is coming up soon. Watch for a pledge card in the mail.

And be ready to celebrate at our annual meeting in Dallas in October, when we present Ranch managers with our check —from the Philmont Staff Association—for a cool ONE MILLION DOLLARS!

We are oh, so close…

–Joe Leisz, Vice President for Development