Dear friends and PeaceWeavers,

For the past two summers, I have had the opportunity to spend two consecutive weeks up at Thunder Mountain, attending the Natural Building Colloquium and the Summer Peace Gathering. This summer I brought a dear friend, Tom Taft with me to the NBC. In addition to being an experienced green builder, he has spent the past 18 years or so as the business manager of a private k-12 school and he has a lot of experience in managing the business side of non-profits.

As Tom and I walked the land we talked about where the PeaceWeavers are now, how the community has developed over the past 20 years, and what is possible for the future. It’s pretty clear that there’s plenty more to come, and that in order for Thunder Mountain to develop into a fully functional retreat center there needs to be some additional development (like building a commercial kitchen and more retreat lodging for example.) We began to bounce around ideas for generating funds for capital improvements and together we came up with a plan that we’re now calling “Gather the Savings.”

“Gather the Savings” is a program where people lend the PeaceWeavers money, interest free, for a set period of time. If enough of us invest, then our smaller sums of money could add up and really make a difference. Our goal is to raise $300,000 for the PeaceWeavers to use to develop Thunder Mountain. All it takes is 300 people each depositing $1,000 into a PeaceWeaver account, or 30 people depositing $10,000 or 60 people depositing $5,000. That will allow them to have an even greater impact in the world while generating more income, which will lead to making an even greater impact…

There are many things I really like about our proposal. I don’t know about you, but I have mixed feelings about my savings account. I put my money in a bank and that bank uses my money to invest in whatever they want to invest in. Sure my money is protected by FDIC (in theory) but I make very little interest on it (less and less every day) while they use it as capital/equity to make more money. It’s been getting harder and harder for many of us to get mortgages, or small business loans while corruption in the banking field is getting more and more press. It really does “take money to make money.” It’s hard to grow a thriving business without start up capital, and more and more I don’t like not knowing what corporations and industries my hard earned capital is helping to thrive.

Thinking about this makes me even more amazed at how the PeaceWeavers are thriving. It’s been 16 years since they started the Center at Thunder Mountain and there have been so many improvements to the land and the buildings, with very little investment capital to work with. And there’s more to do. For example, it’s truly amazing that Stefanie turns out so many fabulous meals for so many folks out of that small kitchen in the Long House, and imagine what would be possible with a commercial kitchen.

I love knowing I can go up to Thunder Mountain when I want to, and every time I leave renewed, refreshed, loved, and more hopeful about the world. I am also so grateful that the PeaceWeavers are touching the lives of more and more people because they have Thunder Mountain.

So, again, think about it, all it takes is 300 people each depositing $1,000 into a PeaceWeaver account, or 30 people depositing $10,000, or 60 people each depositing $5,000. The point is, together we make a difference by generating a pool of money now. The PeaceWeavers have the vision and the track record. What they need is our help in generating the funds.

I hope you will join us.

With gratitude and love,

Sarah Halley

Visit our barn raising page to see more photos of our first building funded by supporters.

If you’d like to support the building fund, please click here (PDF download).