By Carl & Carol Skaggs, Somerset, KY 42503
July 02, 2009 09:22 am
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Dear Editor:
Regretfully, after seven-plus years of restoring, managing and promoting the Old Pisgah Schoolhouse I am retiring as Pisgah Schoolhouse Manager.
I want to thank every person who has come through the doors of the Schoolhouse and helped make it such a success. I will still be working with the Schoolhouse Jammers and looking for new opportunities to promote their music. However, I’m not getting any younger and there are places I want to go and things I want to do so I will be less involved.
The Schoolhouse will be left in good hands as Monica Flynn and Judy Kizer will be the new schoolhouse contacts. Monica is married to Charles Flynn who has returned to Somerset after living near Washington, D.C. for many years. Charlie actually went to Pisgah Schoolhouse as a child. Judy Hughes Kizer was raised in Somerset and her brother attended Pisgah School. Please welcome Monica and Judy as you have welcomed me.
For those not aware of the Schoolhouse story:
Aound 1964 the Pulaski County Board of Education closed a number of rural schoolhouses and offered them for sale. Ralph and Beulah Stigall purchased the Old Pisgah Schoolhouse located between the Church and their home. When Beulah was getting their affairs in order, around 2000, she offered the Schoolhouse to Pisgah Presbyterian Church and the Church purchased the property. The decision at that time was “Do we tear down the building or try to restore it?" That began the schoolhouse restoration.
The Church gave the Schoolhouse Committee $10,000 to get started. Holland Hall, a member of the church, worked five or six days a week for nearly a year as restoration chairman. Other church members made generous contributions and our wonderful Somerset community jumped on the bandwagon and helped make the Schoolhouse what it is today.
From very large contributions by Ward Correll of more than $10,000, to a donation from a small boy of 5 cents, every penny was important to the restoration.
Obstacles, i.e., old lead paint, were overcome by Simpson Paint who called on one of their suppliers in Somerset, N.J., to come in and resolve the problem.
Carol and I even had personal friends in Chicago sending money. There isn’t enough room to include recognition for every person participating in the reclaiming of Pisgah’s Past. Efforts by Rena Buchanan gathering class lists and teacher names, the young men who volunteered to paint the outside of the schoolhouse, the Garden Club planting beautiful landscaping around the Bandstand, the support of the Pulaski County Newcomers who have supported the schoolhouse and all our fundraisers from the very beginning are just a few of hundreds who supported the schoolhouse.
The generosity of this Community is not new. In putting together the history of Pisgah we came across information saying that when a tornado destroyed Pisgah Church the community joined hands and helped rebuild the Church. In the late 1930’s and then later after WWII the community helped build the Pisgah Community Building which was the center of the Pisgah Community.
I am so proud to have been a part of this gift back to our Community by helping with the restoration and preservation of the Schoolhouse. Thousands of you have been to fundraisers, school reunions, family reunions, baby showers, wedding showers, weddings and concerts, etc. at the Schoolhouse and I have gotten to know and have become friends with you. I am thankful for my involvement with the schoolhouse as it has afforded me the opportunity to get to know the people in this community. Each and every one of you is important to us and we will look forward to seeing you at the Schoolhouse Jammers performances and seeing you around town.
It has been totally fulfilling and rewarding to have been a part of this historical restoration. And in saying goodbye to the Pisgah Schoolhouse I just learned there is a schoolhouse restoration project going on to save the one room school in the Reno Community.
Thanks again to the generosity of the Somerset Community.
Carl & Carol Skaggs
Somerset, KY 42503
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