Upgrading the Campus Flagstone Walk

Dear Friends,

Last year was different at The Clearing in more ways than we can count—in more ways than we care to remember too. One of them was taking a year off from our Pass The Hat For The Clearing annual facility project fundraiser. It wasn’t because there were no facility projects that we wanted or needed to do. Instead, it was because the operational and financial challenges brought to bear by the pandemic put many things at The Clearing on hold—classes, events and facility projects. Given all of the challenges that 2020 presented, it didn’t seem right or appropriate to ask for donations for a facility-related project. So we didn’t.

But it’s a new year, and things are looking up and moving forward. We plan to finish a project that was part of the late 2019/early 2020 kitchen renovation project—the completion of the campus flagstone walk. We had done the section from the south end of campus to the kitchen early last year. We had planned to do the entire walk—all the way to the Schoolhouse path and on to the campus parking lot—but we had to reduce the scope of the project to save money. So we only did the part that we had to do—the part of the old walk that had to be redone because it was removed in order to get construction vehicles and equipment close to the kitchen.

The new flagstone walk will be just like the section we did in the spring of 2020. It will be five to six feet wide, will have mortared joints and will be laid on a cement base. We have had rave reviews from guests since last summer on the section of new walk south of the kitchen. It looks great, is easy for people to walk side-by-side, it makes it much easier to haul luggage carts, it eliminates weeds growing in the joints and it eliminates the trip edges that are so common on loose-laid flagstone. It will be a huge improvement at The Clearing.

Our plan is to do as much of the flagstone walk project as possible in late fall, after classes end, then, if we can’t finish in late fall, finish in spring, before classes begin.

Please consider making a donation for this important project.
Michael Schneider
Executive Director