MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – December 8, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Heritage Christmas on Saturday, more Swedish Pavilion tax credits now available, Harvest of Giving year-end campaign, 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 December 1-7, 2025:

Heritage Christmas 2025 is THIS Saturday, December 13, starting at 5:30 p.m. and running through 8 p.m.! Please join us for this cozy community tradition, including music performances – back in the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion! – “A Shepherd’s Story of Christmas”, kids’ crafts, cookie decoration, visits with Santa Claus, tours of the Smoky Valley Roller Mills, the Mayor’s Christmas Kaffe (6-7 p.m.), and festive knitting for sale!
(Last week, Adam prepped and printed large-print versions of the event program and updated the program to reflect venue changes for two of the attractions. Also, our thanks to the many recent stories last week previewing the Heritage Christmas event – Salina Journal, Topeka Capital-Journal, Ad Astra Radio, and Salina Post. Adam sent out a news release to area journalist contacts last week.)
Having used up our first additional tranche of tax credits, last week we were allocated ANOTHER $9,800 under our Community Service Program tax credits grant, going to repair the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion!

This has opened up another $14,000 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!

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 $251,431.15 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 more than 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)!
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 $1,150 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.
Adam processed 11 renewing and one new museum membership last week!
Even so, we are currently showing more than 80 recent membership supporters who are overdue on renewing.
Have you renewed your museum membership? (Are you sure? Check your emails – Adam and Aubrey worked on sending out a direct email for those currently showing overdue.)
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!
Aubrey worked on fixing a heating issue on Heritage Square buildings.
Aubrey worked on developing two corporate sponsorship requests.
Adam booked two ads last week – a campaign with the e-newsletter of the International Association for Operative Millers (IAOM) to promote Millfest, and an ad in the holiday special section with the Ellsworth County/Marquette newspaper.
Aubrey directly invited several major donors to attend Heritage Christmas.
Aubrey worked on a grant application to the Lindsborg Arts Council.
Adam signed the legal documentation to receive the first half of our Kansas Arts Commission General Operating Support grant for 2025-2026.
Adam processed one online gift shop order.
Lenora and Aubrey worked with a representative of the SPRINT Grant to complete the process for this major source of grant funding.
Aubrey updated online gift shop inventory numbers.
Adam replied to the Sunflower Food Company for continued development of a new food product for the gift shop.
Lenora attended coffee at Sunflower Terrace in this continued community outreach opportunity.
Lenora was focused this week primarily on cataloguing of newly donated artifacts – in particular were Lindsborg Grade School photos from the early 1960s and Smolan Grade School photos.
Lenora continued indexing work under the museum’s agreement with ArkivDigital.
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.