| Community
Loan Program Succeeds
By Kenna S. Eaton, from the April 2005 Newsletter
Thanks to the incredible level of support from this community and
our members, we have surpassed our goals for the community loan program
in less than two months.
By late February the member loans were rolling in fast and furiously
and a new, worrisome question had arisen: what would we do if we
surpassed our goal of $350,000 in member loans? Would we stop taking
loans? Or would we raise the ceiling?
After quite a few hectic emails between the finance
committee members a decision was made to go for another $100,000
and drop the financing
from Clearwater Economic Development Assn. (CEDA). CEDA’s terms
were less than ideal and they could use the money to loan to somebody
else if we didn’t need it. Not more than a week later we
had reached our new goal and we had to make the tough decision
not to
take any more member loans. The Finance committee felt that it
was a good idea to keep our debts in more than one place, so with
$450,000
in member loans and $500,000 from Adaama LLC (a private lending
institution) we had secured all our financing and were on our way
to a new store!
The most amazing part of this story is the positive
response to the member loan program. We are thrilled and gratified
to see such
unconditional
support from our membership. It really is heartwarming and wonderful
to know that so many of you believe in what we are doing, enough
to lend us your kids’ college funds or your retirement savings.
I personally want to thank each and every one of you who have contributed
in your own way to making our dream come alive! |
