Fundraising Online for Friends of Shimek

Its been almost a week since the vandalism at Shimek State Forest. John Byrd and Cody Brothersen have been working with area law enforcement officers in investigating the vandalism and all are very actively pursuing the investigation. DNR staff have been cleaning up the damaged areas. In the mean time, there has been an outpouring of support and sympathy from equestrians and from people that never ride but care deeply about protecting our forest and state resources. We, the Board of Directors of Friends of Shimek (FOS), thank you all for your concern and suggestions.

At the urging of members of the Trail Sisters and other on-line friends from the Iowa Horse Council and the Eastern Iowa Trail Riders group, the Board of the FOS has set up an online fund raiser through GoFundMe. Funds raised will be used as needed to: a) to continue to improve the facilities and trails in Shimek State Forest, b) replace or repair necessary structures at all the campgrounds at Iowa's Shimek State Forest with better, more indestructible items including heavier posts, better kiosks, heavy duty trail guards, and if necessary, c) to offer a reward for the arrest and conviction  of vandals in extreme cases of damage.  The Department of Natural Resources will help provide funds and FOS will match grants from other sources with these raised funds to achieve its mission.   All funds will support the mission of Friends of Shimek which is to maintain and improve the campground facilities and riding trails at Shimek State Forest, consistent with good forestry management practices and the protection of the natural resources of the forest.

Anyone willing to assist the Friends of Shimek, which is a 501c(3) public charity, may donate in either of the following ways:

Go to:

 http://www.gofundme.com/FOShimek/  

There your donation will be immediately processed through GoFundMe using your credit card (information not provided to the FOS). You will receive an immediate tax receipt for your donation by e-mail. The fee applied by GoFundMe out of the donation is 8% of the total.

OR

donors may make a donation by mailing a check made out to Friends of Shimek to Lee County Bank, c/o Debbie Miller, Treasurer of Friends of Shimek, 2501 Ave L, Ft. Madison, IA 52627. You will be mailed a tax receipt directly by Friends of Shimek

The other way in which you may assist FOS is through participation as a Volunteer on our scheduled work days. The complete calendar is on the page above titled "Upcoming Activities at Shimek."    The next planned work day is March 12^th. With the ground not yet thawed, and possibly very soggy when it does thaw, we will advise you early next week if this work day can still to be held. Please check back on the Upcoming Activities page for that information if you do not receive an e-mail directly from FOS.

 

To be added to the FOS mailing list, just send an e-mail to FOShimek@gmail.com and ask to be added to the list. We send out e-mail updates on an as needed basis. We will also post information about work days on the new Friends of Shimek Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/FOShimek 

Thank you for your interest in and concern for protecting our state forest and helping assure the future enjoyment of its great riding trails. We'll hope to see you on the work days and on the trails later this year.

Posted by Lora Conrad on behalf of
Ann Bennett, Marsha Achenbach, Debbie Miller, Lora Conrad, Ringo Covert and Neal Hartman,  Board of Directors, and John Byrd, Board Advisor,

Friends of Shimek State Forest Equestrian Trails, Inc.