Trillium deadline extended
| Published: June 11, 2010 – 5:03 pm
For Release – June 11, 2010
Whidbey Camano Land Trust
Contact: Pat Powell, Executive Director(360) 222-3310
Greenbank, WA
Representatives of Shoreline Bank, Coastal Community Bank, and North County Bank have agreed to give the Whidbey Camano Land Trust 90 more days to raise the funds necessary to purchase the 664-acre Trillium property northwest of Freeland. “We’re exhausted and elated,” says Land Trust executive director Pat Powell. “Exhausted because we’ve been working so hard toward this deadline and elated because the banks have given us more time.”
In the past 12 weeks, individuals have donated everything from pennies, nickels, and dimes to $100,000 checks. As of today, the Land Trust has commitments for $2.4 million from a variety of sources, leaving $1.8 million to raise by September 10. The Land Trust, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, has never raised so much money in so little time. Usually, a capital campaign this size takes a minimum of 18 months to complete. The Trust had less than four months. That makes this extension critical.
“The Land Trust’s ability to raise this much money is remarkable and a sign of momentum toward this deadline,” says Jeff Lewis, president and chief executive officer of Shoreline Bank. “But we’re under a regulatory obligation to sell non-earning assets and can’t extend this deadline any further. We have more than $4 million dollars tied up in something that’s earning nothing and is costing us every day.”
“On Saturday, I attended an event at the M-Bar-C Ranch during which the Centaurs, Knight Riders, and Whidbey Wranglers 4-H groups handed over pledges worth $6,600,” says Powell. “The effort they put into fundraising and the hope we see in their eyes makes us want to redouble our efforts at the Land Trust. All the people who haven’t contributed because they thought it couldn’t happen can go ahead and get their checkbooks out now.”
