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RANGELEY — A cottage on the property of the Wilhelm Reich Museum that is part of a program that allows adoptive and foster children and their families to vacation in the region will get a needed upgrade with a grant from the Efroymson Family Fund.
The Indianapolis-based organization is donated $28,450 to replace the sills on the Tamarack cottage on the Reich property, Mary Boyd Higgins, executive director of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust announced.
“Money has been badly needed to replace the sills in this cottage that are rotting and weakening the structural integrity of the building, and making it more vulnerable to cold and expensive to heat,” said in a news release from the trust. “Water pipes and drains freeze every winter and that creates expensive, plumbing bills.”
The house, which was built in sections in the 1940s, was the living quarters of the Reich family. “The sections could separate and we may lose it altogether which would be unfortunate because over the years so much has been done to improve it, such as a metal roof, storm windows and insulation to name a few,” the release said.
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust relies heavily on rental income from the cottage, which is also used six weeks of the year for a summer home for children, as directed in Wilhelm Reich’s will. The trust carries out that wish by making the cabin available free of charge to adoptive and foster children and their families who could not otherwise afford a summer vacation.
The vacations offer six families “quiet, seclusion, access to the shores of Dodge Pond, and the opportunity to be together in the beauty of the Rangeley Lakes Region,” the release said. The program has been in place for 30 years and with the receipt of this grant from the Efroymson Family Fund it will continue.
The Efroymson Family Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, promotes the viability of communities, and to date has awarded more than $100 million in grants.
