BAYFIELD – Pine River Shares, a food share program in Bayfield, announced Thursday that it had raised enough money to secure its purchase of the Old Bayfield Primary School.
The announcement came after a successful 70-day fundraising push, spearheaded by Pine River Shares, to raise nearly $600,000 – just about half the price the Bayfield School District listed the building for back in December, Executive Director Pam Wilhoite said.
“All we’ve been doing for the last 70 days is trying to bring in as much money as possible before closing,” Wilhoite said. “We’re really excited about tremendous community support.”
Not only was the fundraising a success, she said, but it was fun. On May 1, Pine River Shares hosted a “last ditch fundraising concert,” during which residents donated $9,500 to the center.
Pine River Shares is part of the Pine River Community Resource Center, which operates out of the old school. The resource center also houses Pediatric Partners of the Southwest, the Bayfield Community Treehouse, the Grief Center of Southwest Colorado, the Bayfield Farmers Market administrative office, and meeting spaces for the local Girl Scout troop and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Wilhoite said those services – which are otherwise hard to come by in small rural communities – are what helped garner so much financial support both large and small from Bayfield, Durango and beyond.
“We got money randomly from New York City and from Houston,” she said. “And then all the way down to people who gave us three silver dollars or the little kid that gave us a sack of change.”
At the same time, Wilhoite said, Bayfield residents wanted the school to stay in the hands of the community rather than going to a large developer. Many of them have fond memories of the building, whether from when it was a school or as a community center.
“This property has been in the public hands for more than 100 years,” she said. “The first graduating class out of that school was May of 1926.”
Wilhoite and other leaders from the center plan to have the building restored and have even met with the Colorado State Historical Society to understand the best way to preserve it.
Additionally, she said, more services already have or plan to move into the building, including the Bayfield Farmers Market, Pine River Press Works, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups Southwest Rainbow Youth and Bayfield Queers.
Wilhoite said the center will continue providing cost-saving services to the community, which are particularly important with recent spikes in food, gas and housing costs.
“People in Bayfield have accurately predicted that the cost of living would go up and that it was going to get really, really hard,” she said. “We’re focusing on mutual aid, which is like helping people pay bills in emergency situations.”
Supporting people so they can continue to live in Bayfield is why the center exists, Wilhoite said.
“It really is a visionary thing that we’re seeing come into reality,” she said. “We go with our community. We all go together or we don’t go at all.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
