Projects Will Benefit from Fund for Cape May

CAPE MAY – Just a couple of months old, the non-profit Fund for Cape May presents itself as a partner with the municipal governments that make up the Cape Island communities. The Fund for Cape May, not to be confused with the older established and separately focused Cape May Fund, collects and pools private donations with the intent of aiding in the upgrading and beautification of the communities that comprise Cape May Island.
The initial focus of the fund is to provide assistance in the City of Cape May project to redesign and renovate Rotary Park. Curtis Bashaw, one of the founders of the fund, used this first effort to explain how the fund will work.
Recognizing that the island municipalities all have limitations in budgets they can allocate to projects that upgrade the physical infrastructure and make improvements in the physical spaces of the communities, the fund intends to provide those additional monies that may make the difference in the overall quality of the improvements.
Monies raised would be directly contributed to public projects. One example Bashaw used is a situation where the city budget may allow for aluminum fencing, fund participation may mean the ability to use wrought iron more appropriate to the resort’s heritage.
With the Rotary Park project, the fund would look to aid with “fences, benches, lamp posts and the like that may be beyond what the city could afford.”
“We want to ensure that upgrading of public spaces can keep pace with the efforts individuals have put into the upgrading of private spaces,” Bashaw said. While all of the Cape Island communities fall within the intended scope of the fund, its early effort is centered on the city. Bashaw says that the fund, which is “run by a board of directors like any non-profit,” is set to work with the mayor’s advisory committee on the Rotary Park project.
The larger vision, as Bashaw presents it, is to help create that new generation of active citizenry that will replace the aging generation that produced improvements like the Washington Street Mall and the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities. “That generation is in transition,” he said. “We need to foster that same broader sense of citizenry in a younger generation of civic leaders.”
The fund’s press release notes that it has achieved designation as “a 501(c) (3) organization offering tax incentives for contributors.” Bashaw would like to see it even become a vehicle for estate planning donations.
Contributions are also raised through events and the Fund’s inaugural event is an Ice Ball on Feb. 6 at Congress Hall. All proceeds from the event will go directly to the fund.
Information on the Fund for Cape May is available on its website at www.fundforcm.org.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.