Front: Ron Buholzer of Klondike Cheese Co. and John Baumann of Colony Brands Foundation.
Back: Library Board Trustees Jim Plourde and Dan Harrigan, Library Director Suzann Holland, and Library Board Trustee John Tabaka.

Match the Pledge Challenge

A $500,000 challenge gift has been pledged by Colony Brands Foundation and Klondike Cheese Co. to lead a $1.5 million capital campaign for renovations to the Monroe Public Library. These businesses will match every two dollars donated with an additional dollar up to $500,000 and, if met, will provide an additional major contribution.

“The library is important to our community,” said John Baumann, Colony Brands Foundation President, in making the announcement. “It is free to everyone and used by people every day for a variety of services, programs and technology.  If we can raise more than is needed for renovations, it will provide for additional programs, services and collections.”

Ron Buholzer, Klondike Cheese Co. President, agreed. “The library is the heart of the community, and we all want it to be the best it can be,” he said. “Services provided by the library and the Literacy Council are essential to Monroe’s growth.”

In addition, the two businessmen are also playing an integral part in the overall “Let’s Do Something Extraordinary for Monroe” campaign.  Buholzer is a member of the Campaign Committee and Baumann is serving as a member of the campaign’s Honorary Committee along with his wife, Katie Doyle Baumann, who is also serving on the campaign’s 100 Extraordinary Women Committee.

Baumann and Buholzer said their challenge pledge is designed to involve every member of the community, especially its children, as a way of teaching about giving back. Opportunities for the community to participate will be unveiled in the coming weeks. “It IS a community effort,” Buholzer said, referencing the poem We Build on Foundations We Did Not Lay shared with the Campaign Committee: “We are ever bound in community. May it always be so.” Gifts of any size will be matched, Baumann and Buholzer said. 
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