News : Despite storm, Garrison group nearing park project fund-raising goal

Joe Craig, INS, & Byran Kimm, Keystone Comm. present checks to Mandy Fisher and Carol Schellhase.

Garrison residents, while recovering from storm damage, also continue donating to the park fund.

Garrison residents and the organizers of the effort to raise funds for new playground equipment are not letting the damage from the July 11 storm stand in the way of their progress.

Mandy Fisher, of the Garrison Betterment Committee Park Fund and Carol Schellhase of Keystone Communications Board, received donations of $1,500 on Friday morning, increasing its total funds to $16,300, more than 80 percent of its $20,000 goal.

"We still hope to buy and install the equipment this fall," said Fisher, adding that many volunteers, including members of the Garrison Fire Department, have already offered to help set up the new equipment. Fisher is also working on some other grants and matching funds donations to help reach the $20,000 necessary to purchase the equipment.

Garrison residents have been very generous, said Fisher.

But Friday's donations were from businesses that serve the Garrison area. The Keystone Farmers Cooperative Telephone Company (also known as Keystone Communications) donated $1,000 to the project. Iowa Network Services, Inc., which partners with rural companies to provide telephone and Internet services, also donated $500.

Keystone Communications has been in partnership with INS for approximately a quarter-century, first with telephone service and now with fiber optics lines that offer internet and cable television, along with telephone service, to the Keystone, Garrison and Elberon areas. INS and Keystone Communications have partnered as donors in several community projects for those three communities, donating several thousands of dollars to fire departments and other community organizations.

Byran Kimm of Keystone Communications and Joe Craig from INS presented the checks to Fisher and Schellhase at the Garrison Park. Both men remembered being in Garrison recently to make a similar donation to the Garrison Emergency Services, although they also observed that the fire station where they made that donation is one of the places significantly damaged by the wind storm in July.