New General Store Opening in Red Lodge
By Tracy Timmons, Red Lodge Area Community Foundation
“It takes a village” is alive and well in Red Lodge! Real estate agent Nancy Curtis, Berkshire Hathaway, and her husband Todd, re-gifted a wonderful playhouse from their winning Playhouse Parade raffle ticket. They donated it to the outdoor community space at the Old Roosevelt School, this past Saturday. The playhouse is a rendition of a 1950’s era General Store that is sure to engage people of all ages and provide another endearing outdoor play space for children. Nancy Curtis commented, “What a wonderful project to donate to, thanks to the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation. I am thrilled to bring it here to Red Lodge and hope that many local families and visitors find happiness and joy in playing with this very well-built playhouse.” A ribbon cutting to open the playhouse will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 28th, during the Cruisen Red Lodge weekend, at an outdoor concert event, featuring Big Jim & the Twins at Old Roosevelt.
The playhouse construction was quite an undertaking, before it became permanently installed in Red Lodge. The playhouse manifested from the Playhouse Parade in Billings, an annual fundraising event coordinated by Darwin George, of Berkshire Hathaway. The Playhouse Parade benefits at-risk kid’s programs in the Billings area. The “General Store” play house builders, Karen Lahey, Jackson & Iverson Insurance, and her husband Harry, love to build playhouses for this cause and worked meticulously to include every detail. The playhouse is complete with groceries, tools, recreation items, a gas pump, cash register, work apron, and a dog house for the family dog! The windows and screens are functional and there is power to light it up! All of these people came together again, after the playhouse was “won”, and volunteered to deliver the playhouse to its new permanent home, for all to admire and use.
The old Roosevelt School building was purchased by the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation to restore, reuse and revitalize it into an arts, culture, conference, business incubation and education spaces, providing both indoor and outdoor venues in downtown Red Lodge. To learn more about this project please contact Tracy@rlacf.org or 425-0292.