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Donations
Many of the Spokane Antique Carousel Society (SACS) projects
and educational activities are
supported entirely by donations and grants. If you would like to assist in
the support of our education programs or donate to a specific project, send your
contribution to:
Spokane Antique Carrousel Society
c/o T. Fisher
1117 E. 34th
Spokane, WA 99203
(If you'd like your donation to go to a specific project from the list below,
please send a note with your donation explaining where you'd like to
have it applied.)
If you'd prefer to support our efforts by joining our membership,
Click here.
What types of projects will your donation support? Here are some projects
and activities that have been completed since our group was founded in 1998:
- Band Organ Rolls
During 2011, an opportunity arose to purchase a set of original master rolls
for our Ruth band organ. These rolls were purchased by the Spokane Antique
Carrousel Society and donated to our carrousel.
- Deck Skirt
The skirt around the deck is not only for appearance, but also prevents
dropped items (such as carrousel rings and drinking glasses) from rolling
under the deck. Skirts also serve as a visual warning of the edge
of the deck. The deck skirt was replaced by funds from the Spokane
Antique Carrousel Society during 2011.
- The Spokane Antique Carousel Society Carousel Party
We host a carrousel party each year for our members and their families
(A good reason to join SACS right now!).
For 10 dollars, your membership dues help with our projects, and
you'll get to attend a carrousel party with free rides!
- Volunteers
Our members volunteer when needed. In the past, this has included the hosting
of two Technical Conferences for the National Carousel Association as well as
the hosting of Limited Editions release parties. We also
provide a large amount of support for other carrousels in the Northwest, by
offering our knowledge or by finding others who can do the job.
- Presentations and Videos
We offer carrousel presentations when requested. We created an
informational video tape to support these presentations, as well as
a video tape about the mechanical operations of our carrousel, and
another tape with archival information about our carrousel.
- Tours
We provide tours for schools and other special interest groups
- Carousel Restoration and Operation
We located volunteers to restore figures for carrousels in Bickleton and Republic.
For Republic (a small community), we also helped them create their sound system,
including their band organ box.
We helped them set up their carrousel in its new building,
and we still help them operate the machine during Fair Week!
- Education Guide
An education guide has been created, which
may be used by teachers who are teaching the history of Spokane and our
carrousel.
- Sound System
We purchased the CD sound system currently in use for the carrousel. We
also provide its maintenance and CDs, including special music for holidays.
(We even provided a Santa for a Wishing Star Christmas party!)
- Band Organ Maintenance
After the band organ's restoration, we procured grants to have it tuned
and to repair some of its reeds. We've also procured a grant to get new
tails for all of our horses.
- American Flags
We replaced all of the small American flags on the carrousel, an original
detail that had been lost over the years.
- Carousel Tokens
Each year we design a new carrousel token (used for admission to the carrousel),
and have done the write-ups and layouts for the Limited Edition brochures.
- Tah Dah, our Display Horse
We've purchased a half-size hand-carved display horse (named Tah Dah)
with a removable
back side. When it isn't being used for presentations about
the process of creating a wooden carrousel figure, it's on display in
a glass display case in our carrousel building.
- WebSite
We've created a website for our carrousel and band organ.
- Jewels
We've done some emergency replacements of the jewels in our figures,
and are working on getting replacements for the rest of them.
- Carousel Days
Carousel Days is sponsored by SACS. This annual event
is held in conjunction with the School's Out Celebration at the park.
In the past, we've had carrousel carvers, the Greenacres Miniature
Carousel and other community project displays.
- Hospitality
We provide hospitality for the Visitor's Convention Bureau when needed.
We host tours, provide speakers and anything else that we can do to
help in selling Spokane. Our most recent event in this area was hosting
a group of travel writers from Canada. (We got a nice mention,
along with the Davenport, in their story about traveling to Spokane in the
travel section of Vancouver paper.)
Wow, what a lot of stuff has been accomplished in a short amount of time!
Our projects for the future are listed below.
As you'll see, some of these items are minor and some are major.
Some of them are safety items, others are required for the preservation
of our carrousel, and some are just for appearance.
But all of them are important for the overall experience of our
carrousel. (Where available, an approximate cost is included.)
- Brass Inserts ($1500.00)
The holes in our figures become elongated from the rocking motion over the years.
This safety issue needs to be corrected before the openings become big
enough for small fingers to fit into, and before damage is caused
to the horses.
We've designed a brass insert to put into the figures to take up the slack,
but we need funding to purchase the inserts and get them installed.
Four horses have already been fitted with these inserts.
There are about 30 more horses that require the inserts, which should run
about $50.00 each.
- New belts (Cost unknown)
The current belts are stretched out to the point where the buckles
are beginning to damage the saddles.
- New Jewels (Cost unknown)
Our jewels are not only worn and scratched, some of them have cracked and
part of the jewel is lost. The remaining part of the jewel leaves a sharp
edge that creates a safety concern. As the broken jewels are noticed, the
sharp edge is spackled, but it's difficult to find them all as they
break.
- Air Conditioning ($8,000.00 to $15,000.00)
We have no air conditioning. The temperature changes in our
building cause damage to the laminations of our delicate carrousel figures.
Not only that, but there is a drop in ticket sales during the hottest
summer days. The $8,000 to $15,000 cost for adding air conditioning
could pay for itself over a period time by increasing our revenues and
reducing maintenance time on our carrousel figures.
- Deck Repair (Cost unknown)
There are some structural problems with the deck, and it needs to
be refinished as well. Most carrousels resurface their decks every few years.
Ours is 14 years old and has held up very well, but by now it does need
refinished.
- Coat rack ($100.00)
We have lots of winter parties and we have no where to hang a
coat or put a hat in entire carrousel building!
- Mirrors($100.00)
The restrooms have no mirrors. There is no place to check your face or comb
your hair, even for a carrousel wedding!
- Signage ($100.00)
We need signage for handicapped accessibility and ramp location. And,
the sign about catching the gold ring seems to be missing!
- Braille ($100.00)
Blind people love to ride our carrousel, wouldn't it be nice if
they were able to read the names of our horses? We're also
missing braile signage throughout our building.
- Band Organ Upgrades ($11,000.00)
As mentioned in our Band Organ page,
we need new tracker bars (about $1000.00), and a MIDI-file system
with CD's (around $10,000.00).
There are many more items that will need to addressed when we get
a new building for our carrousel. (There will be a bond for the new building
in the near future.) We're hoping to have our carrousel operating
in its new building by its 100th anniversary in 2009!
Thanks for your support!
The Spokane Antique Carrousel Society
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