Last week, the nonprofit organization, Revitalize Dumont, held their first public informational meeting at the American Legion building. Over 70 community members were in attendance to learn about the organization’s mission of restoring the Dumont school building.
The organization received a donation and purchased the school building property earlier this year and Revitalize Dumont President, Roger Kregel, tells RadioOnTheGo News the board has been putting together a plan on how to attack the restoration of the building.
“Our first goal is to have the building cleaned up and accessible by the public by Sandbaggin’ Days on June 21st. Tonight was our first public meeting. That was just to share with the public, our organization, what our feelings and thoughts are going forward, what our purpose is. It just so happens that the school is our first project. But as an organization, you know, we’re here for the long haul and we have other properties in town and we want to help other projects in town. But right now our focus is on the school and we’re going to try and have things cleaned up. And we’ve got a cleanup committee that’s going to be contacting people and put together some weekends for cleanup.”
Dumont City Councilmember, Mike Day, is a member of the nonprofit organization and says the city is in full support of the school building restoration.
“Yeah, the City Council is very pleased to have this organization step up to the plate, taking over the school. It’s a big asset to our city and we’re just thankful to have them on board, be a part of it. We’re here to do what we can to help support and whatever it takes to get the job done.”
Laura Sauls is a volunteer and is documenting the progress of the projects.
“We saw on Facebook, it’s been really fun so far. Of course, we’re trying to create a vision for people to see what the school could possibly be and then also explain where it’s at. So the current condition of the Dumont school is not very good. It’s dilapidated. It’s been vandalized, but then we’re also going to be sharing alumni information. So pictures, we want to hear stories. So share your stories of the Dumont school, share your stories of classmates and teachers and things like that. When you see somebody tag them, the best thing you can do to support us is to share our post and also comment on those. You know how that helps the algorithm, right? Another thing that you can do is if you’d like to donate funds, can certainly do that. Certainly reach out to us.”
For more information, you can email revitalizedumont@gmail.com or you can fill out a contact form, available on their Facebook page.
Picture is from last week’s informational meeting at the Dumont American Legion building.
