April 27, 2018
On April 27, 2018, Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center (KTM&HC) will launch its Cannonball Challenge, a fundraising initiative to raise $100,000 by December 31, 2018. The challenge is part of the Museum’s ongoing capital campaign, “It’s Our Turn to Make History!” Challenge gifts from the general public, up to $50,000, will be matched dollar-for-dollar, by a generous local philanthropist, for a total of $100,000.
“It will take just 100 gifts at $500 each to meet our donor’s challenge,” says Hilary Micalizzi, board president. “Everyone who donates to the Cannonball Challenge makes history with us, helping transform this site from a historic house museum to a regional history center for 21st-century visitors. We provide a unique window on our national experience and our shared citizenship and civic culture.”
“Gifts of any size are welcome,” says Nick Donofrio, honorary campaign chair. “We want everyone to join the history here of ordinary citizens accomplishing extraordinary things.”
KTM&HC’s capital campaign is funding building renovations, landscape improvements, site re-imagining and loan repayment. The goal is to transform the Museum’s two properties on Ridgefield’s Main Street—132 Main Street, the site of the historic Keeler Tavern, and 152 Main Street—into a single, unified campus.
Thanks to some 100 gifts at the Leadership level, the capital campaign is 90% of the way to the $1.5 million mark. The Cannonball Challenge will enable the Museum to cross that milestone and make real progress toward its stretch goal of $2 million.
The April 27th launch is also the 241st anniversary of the Battle of Ridgefield, when British soldiers fired at Keeler Tavern; a cannonball, still embedded in the tavern building’s northeast corner post, rocked the building on its foundation.