WEATHERLY -- The largest donation to date has just been given to help save a 115-year-old historic school building in Weatherly.
"To me, this is a beautiful monument that shows out from the hillside all around. I'd love to see it protected," said Tom McBrien.
McBrien made that donation, writing a check for $5,000 to the Mrs. Charles M. Schwab School Restoration Project.
"I am overwhelmed," said Charlie Palermo.
Palermo leads the nonprofit group trying to save the old school. In just six months of fundraising, the $5,000 donation along with hundreds of others, puts the group $10,000 shy of buying back the building for the borough.
"We have alumni in Hawaii that have donated, California, all over the place, people that are now in Canada," Palermo added.
The Mrs. Charles M. Schwab School building had an original price tag of $229,000, but the bank that owns it has given the nonprofit a special undisclosed price to help Weatherly keep a piece of its history.
To come up with the remaining $10,000 needed to actually save this old school building, the nonprofit restoration group has a few ideas. It's willing to name a room after someone if a generous donation is made, and soon, engraved plaques will also be sold.
"If you want to make a donation in memory of somebody or in honor of somebody that is a good way of doing it. That name will be on the plaque and it will be displayed in the building once it is open," said Weatherly Mayor Tom Connors.
It was someone's generous donation that built this building for the borough in 1901, Connors believes the community's generosity now will be what saves the old school and turns it into something the community can enjoy.