The speakers for this week’s meeting were Shanna and Curtis Sieck from the Mason’s Light House. They provided an update on the progress in the building fund. Rotary 6000 District Governor, Norlan Hinke presented a check from the district.
We had a purchase agreement for land on Melrose Ave. that fell through because the city had different plans. We are working with a landowner and we will be included in the old ACT land area right off Dodge. The land is just east of Dodge and just south of the interstate.
The site will be a little over eight acres. They're working right now to figure out all the water and sewer and a new road to get to us. There is a small pond that they are expanding and they have plans to put in a fountain. There’ll be walking trails all around it, but a lot of nature just surrounding the home, which is really important to us to have a peaceful area.The landowners are developing about 400 acres but leaving a lot of green space. The whole project should take about 15 years. A grocery store, bank, elementary school, a spa and a restaurant are in the plans.So there'll be different amenities just right there close for families to utilize if they’d like.There will be Oak Knoll retirement community. We have heard they are excited and some will be willing to volunteer with us.
We just had our gala in November. Within the last month alone we raised over $300,000. We just keep trucking right along together with some big meetings. If you are the praying type we just ask for some extra prayers that these meetings go well and we can maybe start building here in the next 14 months.
Question: The last time you spoke to Grinnell Rotary, you were speaking about some legislation that you were hoping to pass. Did that pass and does everything look good? That legislation did pass. More in the current session.We just feel comfortable with the Department of Inspection, appeals and licensure. This progress has made the whole project feel more concrete. As soon as the purchase agreement is signed, they are ready to move forward on all the rules with us. They just want to make sure we've got the land.
Just recently, we were contacted by Tennessee who had heard about us and are looking at adapting Mason's law.Iowa is the first state to have a pediatric palliative care center law, Mason's law, so it's super important to get it in all these other states to enable other homes that are trying to emerge even quicker as well.Regarding the building, it's going to cost us about six million. We have been fortunate to have local contractors step up. To date have concrete, windows, doors and door coverings.Rotary support is growing: Marshalltown, Boone, and Newton.At the gala, Steve Dakin (Mason’s Light House board member and rotarian) had a table of ten Rotarians, and most of them were from Oxford and Washington. They made pledges that night. The awareness of project is growing within Rotary District 6000. It was evident at the gala that Rotarians are talking about it. That is the first step to getting more and more clubs aware.
The gala was our third one. You see people there, but you could feel the energy in the room. We have said many times, you cannot see momentum, but you can feel it and that night, there were just so many times where you could feel it. A Blackstone grill was resold four times, each time between $ 3,000 and $4,000 and the person would say, "I'm just donating it, sell it again, sell it again, sell it again.” And you saw that and then when the paddles started going up during the donation moment, you could see people's passions.
Shanna and Curtis Sieck from Mason’s Light House presentation appears on the Rotary Club of Grinnell website in the section labeled “Stories, December 16th, 2025.” Grinnell Rotary Website https://portal.clubrunner.ca/1642
If you are interested in learning more about membership in the Rotary Club of Grinnell, the club meets every Tuesday evening at 5:30 at West Side Family Restaurant.
. Peter Jackson