Raise Hedgebrook's Cottage Roofs

A final update to send our sincerest thanks for all your donations! Through Fundly, we raised $18,778 from 142 people - and with gifts that came through social media and snail mail - we sailed passed our Raise the Cottage Roofs campaign crowd funding goal of $20,000! Thank you so much for your generosity and helping us take care of our beloved cottages.

Warm regards,

The folks at Hedgebrook

It's the last day of our Raise the Roof campaign and we are SO close to our goal! Just under $3,000 left to raise. We are thrilled with the response we've had and so appreciative to everyone who has helped us raise so much.

With just a little nudge, we can push it across the finish line.

Help us by sharing our fundraising page, donating or supporting Hedgebrook through Hedgebrook.org.

Our happy cottages thank you!

Gratefully,

The Folks at Hedgebrook

Just 3 days left in our Raise the Roof campaign!

Please consider even a small donation, as every dollar gets matched 2 to 1! Thanks to our generous donor, Yana Viniko and Hand In Hand Partners, gifts from Alumnae and new donors will be matched TWICE, up to $10,000.

So every gift up to $10,000 will provide up to $30,000 in support. Donations of every size make a difference, please donate now.

Today's Hedgebrook story comes by way of alum, Elana Dykewomon:
During both my stays at Hedgebrook – in 1993 and 2011 – I got a lot of work done, both on my (later award-winning) novel Beyond the Pale and a memoir that's still germinating. But the most significant moment was one morning, looking out the window from the window seat, watching an owl fly with its breakfast into the engulfing tree branches, having the sensation of my purpose, my own purpose in life, fill me. I had been in some despair about futility and dashed hopes for "the revolution" – but that morning I let the forest breathe into me and was renewed. Not separate from life, but part of it, creating what is mine – what is ours – to do.

Thanks from all of us at Hedgebrook.

We are in the home stretch of our Raise the Roof campaign and excited to be so close to our goal. A profound thank you to all who have donated.

We have just 6 days to raise our final $6,000 and meet our goal! Can you help us close the gap?

Please donate and share with your friends! Together we can do this!

Today's Hedgebrook Story comes from alum Claudia Rowe:

"Curled up in my window-seat, I scrawled in pencil an incident so difficult to face that I never expected to include it in my final manuscript. Yet I did. And it turns out to be the portion of The Spider and the Fly that every reader -- no matter their gender or background -- has connected with. Hedgebrook consistently opens our collective unconscious in ways that touch us all."

Thanks,

The folks at Hedgebrook

We are getting so close to our goal! Thank you to all who have donated. Please keep sharing. We have 9 more days!

Today's Hedgebrook story comes from alum, Evelyn C. White, who wrote the biography of Alice Walker:

""Thirteen years after the release of my book Alice Walker: A Life, I still revel in the elation I felt upon completing the first chapter in Oak Cottage. I celebrated by dancing the electric slide. Quiet as it has been kept, the cottage floors are perfect for boogieing-down."

Warmly,
The Folks at Hedgebrook

We have reached 50% of our goal.! Hooray! Just 10 more days to make the other 50%. Even the tiniest donations make a difference. Even if you can't donate, please help us spread the word.

Today's Hedgebrook story comes to us by way of alum, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha:

"On my first afternoon under the roof of Meadow, light streaming in through the blooming lilacs, hummingbirds hovering at their lips, I translated the lyrics of a favorite Fairuz song. Those notes stayed on my desk, and I came back to them again and again, eventually drafting the first few poems of a poetry manuscript I just completed."

Warmly,
The folks at Hedgebrook

It's getting down to the wire with only 13 days left in our fundraiser and more than 50% still to raise. Can you help?

Today's Hedgebrook story comes by way of alum, Charmaine Wilkerson:

"Lovestruck frogs and deer! These were two of the things that made staying in Waterfall Cottage so special. Circling the cottage was a daily ritual that engaged all the senses. Inside the cottage, I did as much reading and sleeping as writing during my week at Hedgebrook. I cannot say how important these processes were to priming the writing muscles! I brought a series of linked flash fiction stories to Hedgebrook for the master class with Teresa Burns Gunther, not knowing that the work I’d done so far was about to win the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award in the UK. The workshopping and my time alone in the cottage helped me to edit the pieces for final publication. Thank you, Hedgebrook!"

We have only 16 days left to meet our goal and need a boost. Please share our fundraiser with friends and family. And don't forget, all donations are matched 2 for 1!

Today's update comes by way of alum Mi Ok Song:

" I spent one glorious month in Fir Cottage in January - February 2000, the year that Whidbey Island unusually experienced an entire month of NO rain! I learned how to stoke and keep a continuous wood fire burning in the wood stove, read Gloria Steinem's entry in the Fir Cottage Journal and felt inspired to write and rewrite, reconstruct and edit my memoir manuscript, write new poems, take leisurely walks in the woods, let Harriet (with Ozzie, the two goats) out of the barn into the pen, dine on fresh, organic, garden grown, delicious meals every evening, and participate in the raucous Poetry Slam in town with my five other compatriots. I met and befriended the grounds keeping poet Barton Cole (who worked there at the time) and with him, enjoyed long, meaningful discussions on the front porch almost daily. Aside from voraciously reading in bed each luxurious evening from 11 PM - 3 AM, my literary accomplishments were abundant. At the time, I was an award-winning poet and a published writer. Now I am focusing on my art work, yet I loved my time at Hedgebrook as one of the most profound, special and enriching experiences of my life."

Today's Cottage Roof story comes from Hedgebrook alum and board president, Sonora Jha:

"We have all had that moment. We leave our cottage to go to the Bath House or go fetch some of last night's leftover cake from the Farmhouse, and we look back at our cottage.

Our breath catches: that roof, the chimney with the smoke from the fire - the raging fire - we just lit, the sun dappling the wave of shingles...this is all ours for now, we remind ourselves in wonder. The sloping cottage roof holds our thoughts now, wide and beautiful with its tips joined like hands in a prayer to the sky.

We take a photograph of the gift that someone decided was ours.

I showed my family that photograph I took some years ago and they gasped. I have a postcard with another such picture of a Hedgebrook cottage on my fridge door now. I think every day of who might be in Oak cottage. I send her my love."

Every donation of any size is much appreciated, and gets us closer to our goal of $100,000 to repair all our cottage roofs in time to resume residencies next month.

It’s also possible to set up a monthly gift through Cedar Deep Circle, a giving circle hatched by alumnae around the Farmhouse kitchen table after dinner one evening, to create a steady stream of income for Hedgebrook.

Thank you so much for playing your part!

The folks at Hedgebrook

We've hit 25% of our goal! Thank you so much to all who have contributed!

Today's Hedgebrook story comes to us from Marivi Soliven Blanco:
The first chapters of The Rizal Dance Hall Murder were written at Cedar Cottage and 5 years later, the novel about migrant farm workers, taxi dance halls, and anti miscegenation laws is done. Though my days were full of purposeful writing, supper with the other writing fellows was equally inspiring. Meeting Gloria Steinem my second and last week at Hedgebrook was a life-changing experience. I saw that beyond being read, books could spark a social advocacy. After my first book The Mango Bride was published, an overwhelming response from its readers spurred me to raise funds for immigrant victims of domestic violence. Consequently, even as I wrote that second novel born under Cedar Cottage's eaves, I was organizing literary fundraisers in San Diego, San Francisco, and Anchorage to benefit non-profit organizations that support immigrant victims of domestic violence. Thus far, we have saved 9 women, helping them escape their abusers and gain citizenship under the expanded protections of the U-Visa and the Violence Against Women Act; in addition to raising thousands of dollars for community centers that support these women and their children. The Mango Bride is now on the syllabus of the Women and Immigration Law class at California Western School of Law.

Don't forget, that thanks to a wonderful sponsor, all donations are being matched 2 for 1, meaning your donations are all being doubled!

Please share with your friends and family and help us spread the word.

Thanks!

The Hedgebrook Team.

We have had a great week so far with our crowdfunding campaign to raise the Hedgebrook roofs and are coming close 25% of our goal of $20,000! So exciting!

Here is another Hedgebrook story from alum, Rita Gardner:

"At Hedgebrook, my own writing spark began to blaze brightly. After two weeks, what had been a binder full of disparate stories had swelled to become the first draft of my eventual award-winning memoir, "The Coconut Latitudes." More importantly, at Hedgebrook I was respected and honored as a writer, and that support allowed me to believe in myself in a way I never had before."

Please spread the word! It takes a village.

The folks at Hedgebrook

Alumnae and New Donor Matching Challenge!

We are deeply grateful to Yana Viniko and Hand In Hand Partners Fund for their generous match. They are challenging Alumnae and new donors to raise the roof!

Donations from Alumnae and new donors will be matched TWICE, up to $10,000. That means every gift up to $10,000 will provide up to $30,000 in support. Donations of every size make a difference, please give now!

Today's Hedgebrook cottage story with alum Sally Pla:

"The rhythm of rain on the cabin roof. The syncopating crackle of wood fire. The murmuring voices of women who came before - incredible women- emanating encouragingly from the stack of journals on the shelf. All helped me finish my first novel, The Someday Birds, in Fall 2014. Hedgebrook. A life-changer. A life-enabler."

Please help us spread the word about "Raising the Hedgebrook Cottage Roofs."

We've raised over 10% of our campaign goal! Please keep spreading the word. Here is today's cottage story from Hedgebrook Alum, Lisanne Sartor:

"During my time at Hedgebrook, I did major rewrites of two feature screenplays and a short film and I started a new screenplay. I shot the short film this past March and am in the casting stage for one of the features. I never would have gotten so much done if I hadn't been at Hedgebrook."

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update to let you know that another roof is in the process of being overhauled. We still have a ways to go to reach our goal. Please help us spread the word about our campaign.

We had a great turnout at our open house this past weekend. People were able to tour the property, walk into a cottage and experience the land, the waterfall, the birds. The work on the roofs was in full swing, and it was amazing to see the amount of work being done. Everyone who attended experienced true Hedgebrook radical hospitality from Hedgebrook staff, alumnae, and Board members and had a taste of the incredible food prepared by our kitchen staff. Thanks to everyone who helped out and especially to all those who attended!