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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Ely Folk School enjoys success in first season

Keith Vandervort
Posted 9/24/15

ELY – The Ely Folk School is enjoying a successful first season. “It exceeded our expectations with more than 50 classes and over 200 students,” said board member Molly Olson.

She said …

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Ely Folk School enjoys success in first season

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ELY – The Ely Folk School is enjoying a successful first season. “It exceeded our expectations with more than 50 classes and over 200 students,” said board member Molly Olson.

She said almost all of their instructors and students were year-round residents of the Ely area. We met our goal of creating a locally-based, non-profit program that caters to our community,” she said.

The EFS newsletter indicates there were 220 total registrants and 86 classes listed. The organization has amassed almost 1,000 “likes” on their Facebook page. Volunteers put in more than 2,500 hours in the first season. Some 600 people participated in a dozen events outside of the classes from May through August.

The Folk School and the Ely School District are collaborating in a developing a coordinator position that could include both the Community Education program and the Folk School.

For this upcoming school year, each entity is advertising for a part-time coordinator position that could result in one person doing both jobs in the future.

“We are hoping to coordinate these positions with the school district to complement rather than compete with each other,” Olson said. “Our memorandum of understanding anticipates that by the 2016-2017 school year, the part-time coordinator position might be shared between the two entities.”

Olson suggested having a school board member and Folk School board member take part in applicant screening for the two positions to facilitate the collaboration.

Folk School Board president Greg Heide said they want to keep things going through the fall, winter and spring. “We are constantly meeting new instructors and adding new classes and feel we have lots to offer, especially as the cold comes in and we have some time to spend indoors,” he said.

In terms of the Folk School’s financial status, total income so far this year exceeds $42,000, with 75 percent of that coming from public support including donations and memberships.

“As we mature as an organization, we aim for grant monies and program services to account for a larger proportion of our income,” Heide said. “Our goal is for approximately 60 percent of our revenue to eventually come from program services.”

Start-up costs and supplies accounted for 14 percent of spending. Payment to staff was about 13 percent, and overhead accounted for six percent of spending.

The John Ott family, who have been re-developing many buildings around Ely, gave the Folk School a rent-free home on Sheridan Street for the first year. Early next year the Folk School will begin paying a graduated lease payment to the Otts, starting at $1,000 per month for 2016.

“Despite recent remodeling efforts, heating bills are likely to be significant throughout the winter, adding another expense,” he said.

The Folk School is looking ahead. During the last week of September, they will be hosting many different classes, including snowshoe lacing, nature writing, making paper, and bookbinding.

In October, the Folk School is partnering with the U.S. Forest Service and Bat Conservation International to help break the world record for the most bats house built in one day. There will be a nominal cost for materials. The instruction is free and participants will be able to take home a bat house to put on their own property.

Other classes planned for this fall include tanning deer hides, birch-bark ornaments and basket making, holiday decorating, and rosemaling ornament making.

The Folk School will partner with the Ely Winter Fest in February and offer a course in snow sculpting. They also plan to offer a ‘life skills” series with an emphasis on tool use and clothing repair.

For more information, call 218-235-0138, or visit their website at www.elygolkschool.org.