(Arnolds Park)– With the start of the tourism season literally just weeks away, the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum held its regular monthly meeting Friday.
Al Maser, Chairman of the fundraising and long-range planning committee, again outlined their goal of raising 100-thousand dollars at the annual meeting of the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum August 8th. The committee plans to sell 500-dollar sponsorships, 100-dollar tickets to a dixieland band cruise on the Queen II and 25-dollar raffle tickets to win a 1964 wooden Owens Cruiser owned by Jim Danbom.
Addressing the organization’s 1.7 million dollar debt also came up again. Maser reported his committee discovered that six million dollars of the “Save The Park Campaign” came from 200 donors. A list of the benefactors was distributed Friday to each of the 11 board members. Maser asked for a new campaign to reduce the debt, and requested the board members to contact previous donors to see if they would be willing to make another gift to the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum.
On a related note, Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum Executive Director Jim Frost reported that 49-thousand dollars in principal on the debt was paid off last week from money taken in from uncollected pledges from the “Save The Park” campaign.
Frost also reported Friday that a Milford firm has been hired to oversee the park’s marketing efforts this summer. A martketing plan had previously been developed by a committee of the Maritime Museum Board, but KUOO news has learned that plan was scrapped.
