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Michigan ag museum seeking education partners and donors


By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

BLISSFIELD, Mich. — A project to transform a former canning company site in southeastern Michigan into the home of an agricultural history museum is moving forward.
A feasibility study, business plan and strategic plan recently were completed for the American Farm Museum and Education Center, formerly the Agricultural Awareness and Preservation Museum, according to Melissa Growden, marketing and communications chair and secretary of the museum’s board.
While conducting the feasibility study, she said about 70 interviews were completed from a variety of constituents, with an overall positive review. Late last year, a two-year lease on the former Blissfield Canning Co. property was signed, and the board is gearing up to launch a capital campaign to fund the purchase of the site and the first phase of development on the property.
The museum will preserve local agricultural history through a variety of displays including a collection of about 13,000 farm toys, artifacts relating to the history of agriculture, a wall honoring Centennial farms, the evolution of agricultural technology and full-scale tractors and other ag items.
In addition, organizers are exploring potential partnerships with large agricultural schools to enhance the board’s view of a “think tank” educational center that would bring a variety of agricultural education opportunities to the area for local farmers, school groups and others.
The heart of the collection is the farm toys, as well as about 360 pedal tractors bequeathed to the museum from the estate of Charles Burkholder, a retired vocational-agriculture teacher and farmer who passed away in May. Since his death, museum volunteers have worked tirelessly to inventory, pack and move the toys to temporary storage facilities.
The collection far exceeds the initial 6,000 toys that were to originally going to be donated to the museum by Burkholder. “The number of items really changed our course of action and our direction with the project,” Growden said. “Some of the pieces are one-of-a-kind.”
She explained a development committee comprised of leaders in the ag community is finalizing details of the fundraising campaign, and the museum board hopes to raise enough money during the initial capital campaign to fund early development of the property.
“We hope to build a pole barn on the property where they can have an office and store the toys,” Growden said.
In addition, the board hopes to continue to work with Rhode Island-based architect Friedrich St. Florian, who created an initial design concept for the museum. She said the initial site plan should be reviewed and modified to accommodate the additional toys as well as other features to enhance educational opportunities in the area.
Blissfield is about 55 miles southwest of Detroit, within 500 miles of more than 93 million people, and organizers are hoping to tap into that population for support.
“About 18,000 vehicles drive through Blissfield daily,” Growden said. “If one-quarter of 1 percent stop, that would equal 90 visitors per day, or about 22,000 in 50 weeks.”
Lenawee County, where Blissfield is located, has 1,424 farms and is ranked No. 1 in Michigan for the number of farms in a county. It’s also ranked third in the state for farmland acreage totaling about 400,000 acres.
The museum board has its own tax-exempt status and also is partnering with the Lenawee Community Foundation for fund management, according to Growden. Donations are being accepted and checks may be made payable to the Lenawee Community Foundation with the message “Farm Museum” in the memo line. Donations may be mailed to: American Farm Museum and Education Center, P.O. Box 37, Blissfield, MI 49228.
12/3/2015