May 5, 2010
The Pepperell Board of Selectmen recently voted to create an advisory committee called the Covered Bridge Committee to preserve and promote the history of the covered bridge area. The committee includes members from groups, organizations and businesses across Pepperell including interested residents. We meet regularly to plan the bridge opening ceremony and a town wide celebration and we’ve been working for a year on the Prudence Wright Overlook, a naturally landscaped area of memorials and bridge artifacts to be created at the bridge. We’ve been actively raising money to accomplish our initiatives including the Scenic Outlook fundraiser that is open to all businesses and the Engraved Brick fundraiser which is open to the public. Find more information on facebook at Pepperell Covered Bridge or in the “News” section on ShopPepperell.com. We anticipate continued success delivering these projects without placing the burden of cost on the town or the taxpayers.
The non-profit committee is planning a web site and we're extending an opportunity to Pepperell businesses to help sponsor the site. It is a modest and simple web site but necessary to keep the public informed, to promote the history of the bridge and Prudence Wright and to engage the community in our upcoming activities. We’ve selected a logo using an image of the original watercolor painting by Nita Casey of Pepperell, which was auctioned off nine years ago to raise funds to benefit the covered bridge site. The site will also include covered bridge information and images, background on Prudence Wright, a patriotic theme and events related to the bridge opening. The site will be linked to other non-profit web sites in Pepperell and to the town’s web site, as we continue to promote Pepperell and its rich history. We’ll be using the domain name pepperellcoveredbridge.org and due to the popularity of this name, our web site will very likely attract a lot of visitors and attention.
Sponsorship starts at $50 and the web site will list the business sponsors and provide a link to their web site. This is a one time donation, but your business would be displayed on the site indefinitely to show you our appreciation. There will be a limited number of donors because we only need to raise around $1000 - $1300 for development and $150 for web hosting and we’re well on our way thanks to some generous businesses. Any additional funds raised will be used to enhance the web site. It will take about 3 weeks to develop the site, which will start within the next two weeks, so the program will be open until the web site launches.
We hope that businesses will consider this another worthy cause by the volunteers of the Covered Bridge Committee and see the mutual benefits it may provide. Please let us know if you’d like to make a donation or if you need more information by contacting us at coveredbridgecommittee@yahoo.com or by calling 978 877-0306.
Thank you.
Covered Bridge Committee