A Season of Giving
These days, times can be tough. Even more so for small businesses as they struggle to pull out of the pandemic and issues with staff and shipping. As we head towards the holidays, it has never been so important than to support small, local businesses.
Tuesday, November 30th – Give Tuesday
Friday, November 26th – Shop Small
Give Tuesday is a National Day to give to your favorite causes, charities, nonprofits, or organizations. Just like small businesses, these organizations struggle to make ends meet.
Shop Small is a National Day created to encourage people to shop their local small businesses instead of grabbing a quick shipment from large online retailers.
We have combined the two days to create a special opportunity for you. The James Madison Belle Grove Foundation will start a very special campaign to reach a very long overdue goal on Monday, November 22nd to December 5th. We would like to reach $8,000 to complete the repair work to our 1854 Chickering Box Grand Piano.
This priceless donation was giving to us about 7 years ago by Joseph and Ginevra Wolfinger of Tappahannock, Virginia. While beautiful this piano needed some restoration work. After a long search that lasted over 5 years, we found Noah Stidham of Richmond to take on this very delicate task. We started the work just before the pandemic broke out. The piano is over 75% original and came with some very unique features. Each key peg was marked using a quill pen the note that it was to be. This was discovered when Noah removed the many years worth of coal dust inside. Also found inside was two letters from the 1920s. They were from a previous owner and give us a snap shoot into their lives. We even found items left by a little mouse that once called this beautiful piano home. It is our goal to complete this work and have it for our guests and visitors to enjoy.
We have teamed up with some pretty amazing local, small businesses to bring you a very unique campaign. Each of these amazing vendors have donated a product or service to the James Madison Belle Grove Foundation. We will offer special gifts with values of $50 or more at a discount for special donations. As you help us reach this goal, we ask that you also visit these special small businesses to see other items they have to offer. Complete your holiday gift giving list by purchasing and supporting these vendors!
