Wednesday, December 13th 2017
During this time of giving...one local businessman is taking his donation to a higher level.
The St. Joseph Convention and Visitors Bureau bought 100,000 pairs of Eclipse Glasses to view August 21’s phenomenon. The glasses were originally funded by Sunshine Electronic Display Corp.’s Kendall Randolph with the agreement that proceeds would go to three local charities.
“I just wanted to say thank you to Robidoux Row, Mount Mora Cemetery and Patee House for being such integral parts of our community. They have been around for decades, they are each part of the the fabric that makes St. Joe so great and I want them to continue to thrive,” said Randolph.
The glasses sold for $2/pair or 6 for $10. The sales went viral (especially after Amazon’s admission that some of their glasses weren’t safe) and huge loads of glasses were snatched up by companies all over the midwest.
“This was all possible because Kendall was willing to fund the process,” the executive director for the CVB, Marci Bennett, said. “With no idea of whether this would be successful, the CVB was not in position to make an investment and take the risk on its own. His desire to help out St. Joseph charities drove this whole idea.”
Now, as the dust settles...three St. Joseph charities are the huge beneficiaries and Randolph plans to drop checks off this week.
Robidoux Row, Mount Mora Cemetery and Patee House will all receive close to $26,000 each.
Suzanne Lehr is the historian for Mount Mora Cemetery and admits the $26,000 will greatly help her 166-year old labor of love live. “Mount Mora Cemetery is an important historic site (1851) and income is exceedingly limited. Donations make an extremely important impact on our ability to do the restoration work necessary to preserve mausoleums and tombstones, many of which are well more than 100-years-old. The history of the many interred there is amazing and being able to preserve the site and share the cemetery’s history with visitors from all over the world is very important.. We are deeply appreciative of Kendall Randolph’s incredible generosity.”
News coverage
http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/groups-to-receive-money-from-eclipse-glasses/article_fae4a75c-057f-56a4-815d-af783438265f.html
http://www.kq2.com/content/news/Local-Man-Donates-75000-to-Historic-Charities-463971093.html
