MONDAY MORNING MUSEUM UPDATE – July 14, 2025 – Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum

In this week’s update: Sunflower Summer, construction bids due, “Raise the Roof” tax credits, 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 July 8-13, 2025:

Sunflower Summer 2025 is officially underway!
This state program and app makes more than 230 (!) Kansas attractions and events available for FREE to Kansas school-age kids and one accompanying adult, July 12-August 3.

The full list of attractions is now available at www.sunflowersummer.org and – of course – includes the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage Museum! Also in Lindsborg, we have participating: Broadway RFD, Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, Small World Gallery and the Red Barn Studio Museum!
An important note: This year, there is a hard limit on what is being spent on the program statewide. If the program runs out of funding before August 3, it will close before August 3. This means it is important to make your plans for using the Sunflower Summer app and attend them as soon as you are able!

We encourage everyone with school age kids in Kansas to take advantage of this wonderful program!
We are currently taking bids on re-roofing the main museum building! Bids will be due THIS WEEK on Thursday, July 17, and an in-person site visit is required of all bidders. Find more details and bidding instructions at www.oldmillmuseum.org/project-bids.
With stability repairs on the 1904 World’s Fair Swedish Pavilion now complete, we are now in the “Raise the Roof” portion of the Pavilion repairs fundraising campaign.
Tax credits are still available for the 2025 tax year for donations under this campaign. Proceeds go to help with a new planned Pavilion roof that will be more durable and with a more historically accurate look! There will also be opportunities to have a “roof tile” with custom wording added to a permanent honor wall to recognize contributions to replace the roof; details will be coming soon.
Another $3,000 pledge was made last week, bringing the total contributed to the new roof to nearly $35,000. (Also last week, Adam worked on the required quarterly report for this grant.) There is still capacity for more than $52,000 in donations possible under the grant, with eligible donations qualifying for a 70% fully refundable tax credit on Kansas taxes.
Learn more at www.oldmillmuseum.org/raise-the-roof.
Adam processed one new museum membership. Become a member at www.oldmillmuseum.org/members.
Caroline de Filippis is back helping at the museum! Formerly on the museum staff, she is now working as a contractor focusing on grant applications!
On a community note, you can see museum staff member Adam Pracht on stage this week in the Broadway RFD production of “The Music Man” as “Ewart Dunlop” (one of the quartet members). Shows are July 18, 19, 25, and 26.
Our campgrounds reservation policy has been updated. See details HERE. Also, the campground’s Hipcamp site was updated last week.
Adam processed and mailed an online gift shop order.
The ordered tablet for the Old Mill augmented reality tour tested as working this week, so Adam ordered a second one using grant funds to make available for checkout and to advance this unique project.
Adam was recorded on camera last week with the McPherson County Community Foundation for a feature video about the main museum roof grant for $104,000 from the Nutt Legacy grant. When ready, that video will be available HERE.
Adam made updates to the museum’s TravelKS.com profile and Sunflower Summer app profile.
Aubrey made gift shop restocking purchases.
Lenora worked on a grant application for updating the Lindsborg Business Directory resource. Adam provided edits and suggestions.
The museum team met with CKA Fundraising consultants on Thursday.
Adam wrote a news release about the SPRINT Grant wrapping up. It will go out this week.
Aubrey had a meeting on getting Bethany College history students more involved at the museum.
Aubrey worked on grant applications.
Lenora assisted a man doing research on his great grandfather last week.
Registration will be opening this week on the next Swedish Genealogy workshop and Pursing YOUR past workshop. Watch for details to come.
Tyler continued working on the Historic Image Database on Tuesday and Thursday. Currently his is working on several binders of photos on loan from Covenant Church.
Lenora met for coffee at Sunflower Terrace on both Tuesdays to gather local oral history.
Lenora has continued working on an indexing project under contract with ArkivDigital.
Lenora worked on the SPRINT Grant quarterly report.
Need a great gift for the genealogist or history enthusiast in your life? NEW in the museum gift shop, you can now purchase a gift certificate good for a free registration to one of the museum’s Online Swedish Genealogy Workshops anytime in 2025 ($50) or a 2025 Pursuing YOUR Past presentation ($10). Your gift recipient will receive a one-time-use code by email or mail good to pay for the registration fee for one of these popular sessions!