MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – December 1, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Last week of Match Month opportunity, Harvest of Giving year-end fundraiser, Millfest sponsorships starting to arrive, and more!

In this update, keep up to date on what staff and volunteers at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum are working on to lift up the history of Lindsborg and the surrounding region. This weekly update both looks back at what happened and looks ahead at what’s coming.

For November 24-30, 2025:

This is the LAST WEEK for a great opportunity to make your donation dollars stretch further! Right now is Smoky Valley Community Foundation Match Month, running through this Friday, December 5!
Donations made to the museum’s endowment fund will be matched up to 50% thanks to a $100,000 Patterson Family Foundation grant to support the match month effort.
To donate under this opportunity…
Mail to: SVCF, PO Box 84, Lindsborg, KS 67456 (enclose your check along with the form HERE)
or Give Online: www.smokyvalleycf.org (credit card payment only)
Thank you!
Ongoing in December we have our critical Harvest of Giving 2025 year-end fundraising event. Our topline goal is $50,000 in unrestricted donations to keep the museum lights on and the doors open in 2026. In the space of four years, a major source of public funding has gone from covering half of our annual expenses to less than 8%. Because of this, it is more important than ever for generous private donors, businesses, and organizations to step in and ensure that the rare experiences at the Museum continue to be available in 2026. Learn more and make your charitable donation today at www.oldmillmuseum.org/harvest-of-giving.
Sponsorship opportunities for Millfest 2026 are now open and available! Already we have had $550 in event sponsorship dollars come in!
Scheduled next year for Saturday, May 2, this is the one time annually that our visitors can take guided tours of the 1898 Old Mill IN OPERATION! The festival also includes, music, entertainment, arts & crafts, antique tractor show, games, demonstrations and face painting!
Giving levels to sponsor run from as little as $25 to get your name in the program to $5,000 or more to secure topline “Brought to you by…” overall event sponsorship. You can also choose to direct your donation to specific Millfest attractions, including face painting, tractor show, Old Mill tours, or music performances! See full details including how to arrange your sponsorship with the forms included below. Aubrey made direct contact with four new potential Millfest sponsors.
Adam processed 19 renewing museum memberships last week! Even after processing so many renewals, we are still currently showing more than 70 recent membership supporters who are overdue on renewing.
Have you renewed your museum membership? (Are you sure?)
Give us a call at 785-227-3595 or email at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com and we will be glad to check on your status. It’s also a great time to think about becoming a new member if you’ve never been one before, or to purchase a gift membership for someone special in your life! See www.oldmillmuseum.org/members for details!
Heritage Christmas 2025 is nearly here! See the full lineup below for this cozy community event, and we look forward to having you here on Saturday, December 13 starting at 5:30 p.m.!
In early November, we were allocated an additional $7,300 under our Community Service Program tax credits grant, going to repair the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion!

This opened up another $10,428.57 in NEW donation capacity to “Raise the Roof” with a more durable and historically accurate roof on the historic 121-year-old structure.

What’s more, qualified taxpayers who give at least $250 and who file a Kansas state tax return can get 70% of their donation BACK as a fully refundable tax credit!

This opportunity has been VERY popular – already the remaining capacity is now down to $6,978.57.

Don’t let the opportunity pass you by! Call us at 785-227-3595 or email at oldmillmuseum@gmail.com for more details.

Overall, this opportunity has raised $244,431.15 for repairs and improvements to the Pavilion.
Contributions under the grant paid for critical structural repairs (costing $151,500), allowing us to safely reopen the Pavilion to the public in summer 2025. We are also about halfway toward the funds we will need under the “Raise the Roof” campaign to repair the Pavilion’s roof in a more durable and historically accurate way.
If you would like to help with Raise the Roof, you can learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof.
We have several recognition reward levels available: These include recognition on our website and an invitation to a special VIP event once all of the funds needed for the roof (at $100 or more) and opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall (at $1,000 or more)!
Adam prepared a news release about Heritage Christmas last week that will be going out to journalists today.
The museum was closed last Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Lenora was on vacation last week.
We are excited to offer the first “Discover Your Past” Virtual Genealogy Workshop, set for Saturday, January 31, 2026!
Rather than the usual focus on Swedish genealogy research resources, this time the sessions will be able to apply to ANY genealogy or family research, regardless of country background! Museum members register with a $20 discount. We hope you can join us!
Tyler continued working on scanning historic publications.