Step by Step: The Number on the Wall Is Now $7.4 Million

There was no ribbon and no announcement. On Wednesday afternoon, November 4, four people met in the parking lot beside the Meyer with two ladders, a cordless drill and a sheet of vinyl numbers.

Carm Pierce, board president and donor. Board members Paula Thomas and Brian Radford. And Steve Thomas, Paula’s husband. Paula and Steve have given this campaign money and a great many hours, which is the combination that actually builds things.

Four of the people who govern this organization, up ladders in a parking lot on a Wednesday. The rest of the board is on our about page.

Banners came down. Banners went up. Somebody went up a ladder to the roofline and came back down. And on the tall white panel facing the street, the thermometer that tells this town how the capital campaign is going got a new number.

$7.4 million

The number on the wall is now $7.4 million of a $13 million building. That is 57 percent. Above it, in red: permit stage.

It is worth saying plainly what that means. Design is done. Engineering is done. The drawings are with the people who issue permits, and when they come back, this project moves to the part everyone can see from the road. The building itself has been drawn, costed and sited. What stands between the drawing and the ground is paperwork and money, in that order.

If you want the longer version of how a storefront on the brick road became a $13 million project, it is in our history.

The small steps are most of it

It is easy to picture a capital campaign as a handful of large moments: the lead gift, the groundbreaking, the ribbon. Those happen, and we will have them. But most of a campaign is a Wednesday afternoon.

318 donors have given to this project so far, from $5 to $3 million and beyond. Every one of those was a person deciding, on an ordinary day, that an art center in Stanwood was worth something to them. The number on the wall is the sum of a lot of small decisions, and it moves the way it moved on Wednesday — by hand, a few inches at a time.

November and December

Which brings us to the next stretch. Before the Doors Open is our year-end campaign, running November 1 through December 31, with a goal of $100,000 for the building and for the programs running right now.

Our board has already pledged $30,000 of it over these two months, and they have put it up as a match. If this community gives another $30,000 before December 31, those two halves together make $60,000 of the $100,000 — and every gift is doubled while the matching funds last.

There are three moments to do it in.

Giving Tuesday, December 1. The global day of giving, and the opening of our season. Read about Giving Tuesday.

Holiday Open House and Student Art Show, Wednesday, December 16. 5:00 to 8:00 PM at The Floyd in Stanwood, free to attend, with student artwork on the walls, handmade ornaments and cards, and a hands-on art activity. Families welcome. See the evening.

Year-end, through December 31. Gifts made by the 31st count toward this tax year and toward the board match. Give online any time.

What your giving keeps running

None of this is only about a building. Afternoon of the Arts, funded by The Olson Foundation, is expanding to every school in the Stanwood-Camano School District by spring 2027, and now reaches homeschool families at Saratoga and the transition program for students ages 18 to 22. In August we closed the brick road for the Meyer Art Festival, in the rain, and the street filled up anyway.

Those programs run on operating dollars, which are the least visible part of this work and the part that makes the rest possible.

Come have a look

The thermometer is on the side of the building, facing 532. Drive past and you will see exactly where we are. See what else is coming on the events calendar, or make a gift and move the number yourself.

Step by step, the number moves. We will see you at the next one.