SAVING FALCONRIDGE FARM: Riding instructor launches ‘long-shot’ crowdfunding campaign to buy it for therapeutic-riding center

(WSB photo)

It’s the largest goal amount we’ve ever seen on a crowdfunding drive:

$6.600,000.

Julia Montagnet of Vashon Island has put that pricetag on a Generosity.com campaign to try to buy and save Falconridge Farm, the four-acre West Seattle horse farm that – as we first told you two weeks ago – is up for sale and being marketed as a potential housing subdivision.

Julia says she is working on opening a therapeutic-riding center. She says she has been in contact with Falconridge Farm’s owner Dr. Jean Nokes and says that Dr. Nokes has at least one offer from a developer on the table but has another week or so to make a decision. Julia adds:

Our therapeutic riding facility is brand new although it’s something that has been in the works to get to this point for a couple years. We feel like being right in Seattle like that would be a huge benefit to families who would like their kids to have that opportunity without having to go far outside the city. Plus, seeing how long the waiting list is for Little Bit Therapeutic Riding in Redmond, it is obvious there is still a big need for such facilities in our area. It’s a short time to come up with the money, but we would like to at last try.

Julia has been teaching riding lessons on Vashon for three years and is about to go to Idaho for her certification testing at PATH International. She says she has set up a nonprofit for her center “and started looking at where it would be. Falconridge is a long shot but it would be such a perfect location! My staff therapist is in Renton so it’s right in between us. And I am hoping to be able to hire a second PATH certified instructor and it would be easier for folks to get to than Vashon Island.” The crowdfunding page is here. (Julia’s contact info, by the way, is in comments on our original Falconridge story.)

Alki Resident September 25, 2017 (8:13 pm)

What’s happens to the money that is raised if the total amount you’re asking for isn’t accomplished?

Julia September 25, 2017 (9:40 pm)

That’s a very good question. It is given back to the donor. I think more people are familiar with the Kickstarter platform – this is the same idea. If the final goal is not reached then obviously we can not purchase the property and the pledged funds will be returned. Folks have the option to then donate directly to the Tasha Therapeutic Riding Center non-profit if they wish, but the funds would go toward something else (in this case programming – paying for lessons for families who could not pay for them themselves). With these kinds of campaigns the money is actually held in a sort of escrow account through Generosity (a subsidiary of Indiegogo) so it never actually goes into our non-profit’s bank account unless we reach our goal.
- Alki Resident September 25, 2017 (10:26 pm)
  
  Thank you

Morgan September 25, 2017 (8:46 pm)

Land bank for Parks Dept? Open space…? Forterra?

Morgan September 25, 2017 (8:51 pm)

Isn’t Highpoint and Delridge considered a “food desert”? And here’s a farm….hm.

Peter September 26, 2017 (7:16 am)

Four legs good, two legs bad. Save the Animal Farm. West Seattle is over crowded, no more new construction. Save he farm, build a park.

Jort September 26, 2017 (8:51 am)

$6.6 million?!?! WOW.

Hey, good luck!

Bellamay September 26, 2017 (4:55 pm)

She might have more success broadening her focus. Many parents of typically-developing children would love to have access to equestrian lessons in the neighborhood.

Lisa M September 26, 2017 (8:41 pm)

You might want to include in the write-up that money will be refunded if goal isn’t reached. Do you have a Facebook page to share?

Thanks!

Julia September 27, 2017 (10:05 pm)

That’s a good idea (about making it more obvious about refunding if our goal isn’t reached).

I don’t have a Facebook page for the campaign – it’s too brief since the money has to be raised by next Monday to feel worth something like that. I do have a Tasha Therapeutic Facebook page – there’s not much on it yet. We’re still such a new organization and I’m more of the riding instructor type than the social media marketing type! But I’m hoping to add more to it as we grow. We need one of those marketing types on our board of directors. :)