Longacres Alumni Page -

 The Longacres Riding Camp: 1939 - 2014

"Friends of Longacres" - giving and donations –

We are very grateful for the occasional donations to Longacres from Friends and Alumni – !

 MANY thanks to those of you who made generous donations last summer during our 75th Anniversary Diamond Jubilee get together

If you've read the "Longacres Alumni Page" and our current news pages on the website, you know that things are going very well at Longacres. Our budget for annual expenses is balanced and new students have to sign up almost a year in advance to get into many of our regular camp sessions.

But money is still a big issue in our master plans. To have nearly 76 years of Longacres tradition is a good thing. But to have buildings and facilities 76 years old leads to occasional very expensive maintenance issues. Many of you are in business yourselves, and it doesn't take more than five minutes with a pencil to see that a camp program with only nine students and a few CIT's is hard pressed to cover routine expenses, let alone major maintenance!

It may seem odd for a privately owned small business to be accepting donations. But Longacres is an "odd" small business. As most of you regulars know, it is a labor of love for us to keep Longacres going after 70 years in our family. And to maintain the very unusual small family farm style riding program that makes us unique. It is no accident that camps offering five hours of riding and showing for everyone are few and far between. They do not make economic sense without special support. Tom and Meghan usually take under $30,000 a year out of the Longacres business and live a modest, but comfortable life with the help of some unrelated outside income.

In a way, we think of "Friends of Longacres" giving to be a form of multi-tiered tuition. Neither Tom nor Meghan grew up in wealthy families, and we very much want Longacres to remain affordable to some middle class families who are willing to sacrifice a bit. We do not want to become a place that is only for the very rich. If you can afford to contribute something - to pay a little more than the base tuition, it means we can keep our basic tuition a little lower a little longer, and have a more diverse group of students join our family every year.

If your family is in a position to make a contribution as a "Friend of Longacres", along with your tuition payment, Longacres will be grateful. Such contributions will allow us to keep our tuition rate from becoming unaffordable. Actually, we don't ask anyone to make a donation before your child has attended Longacres - wait until you've experienced us for a session, and then support us additionally if it has been good for you and if you can afford it.

We are grateful to those of you who contributed as a "Friend of Longacres" in some way during the past couple of seasons. We had several who made helpful cash donations towards the cost of our new barn roof and the major dining hall renovations, including a full new roof on the dining hall last summer.  We have had valued contributions of time and effort from some with special skills helping to open and improve the farm. We had a major gift covering most of the construction of new bridges around the farm a few years ago. We have had help caring for horses that otherwise might not have found a winter home. Many of you sponsored high score awards in the Summer Horse Show Series. More than a dozen parents of current students plus a few other Friends of Longacres helped in some way last year. Four different families made contributions in the 4 figure range during our 75th season last summer.  Anything at all is a help and is appreciated!

In addition to larger cash contributions to our general and maintenance funds or for a new projects like the recently done sand ring, you can sponsor horse show High Score Awards for a $150 donation for a division; you can be an Awards Party Patron for a $100 donation. And if you have special skills that could be of help to the farm, give us a call.

 

If you are interested in supporting Longacres with a special gift for the above uses, contact Tom or Meghan at this link.

Thank you!