For the last several weeks, the beautiful teak Buddha that sits just above the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona has undergone a much needed stripping and cleaning to prepare for a new oil finish.  Many layers of old, dried finish have been successfully removed.

Using green, non-toxic stripping agents, several treatments were applied, allowed to dry, then brushed off.  It was taking a long time!

Then the call went out for a power washer to accelerate the process. Within two hours, Don Williams, owner of a power washer, just happened to show up at the Stupa.  (They call it Sedona Synchronicity out here!)

Don is a highly skilled guy with many talents who worked long hours helping to build the Amitabha Stupa several years ago.

After three new coats of finish, the Buddha looks simply radiant! Three more coats will be applied this Thursday on Chokhor Duchen.

Special thanks to Dave Carrol, who is heading up the project, Shawn Emory, who worked on sanding and refinishing, Carol Phelps, who allowed us to hook up to her water supply, and donors Robert Abrahamson and Ananda Robie, who funded supplies.

Not all the generosity we’ve experienced in the last month has come in the form of money!  We want to acknowledge the volunteers who have helped us improve the state of our Peace Park.

After last winter’s storms, the Peace Park looks like, well . . . like a hurricane hit it.  It is full of downed trees, mostly juniper and white pine, the shallow-rooted softwoods that were bent by the weight of the snow and uprooted by the high winds of several severe storms.  Frankly, we’ve never seen anything like it!

Here our grounds manager, John Pelletier, takes a volunteer on a tour of one such damaged area.  The volunteer was one of several trained by the Sierra Club who called and offered help.  We love it when that happens!  Particularly when the help shows up with his own chain saw and the expertise to use it!

John and the volunteer conferred, then the volunteer used John’s back to sign a volunteer waiver.  Then he got down to work, making his chain saw sing its industrious song!

It was a great party—and we’d like to share it!  At least the entertainment part:  you can see select performances here.

Before the performances, the audience joined in Amitaba Practice together.  (Yep!  It was 7 p.m.:  time for worldwide prayer.)

Then KPC member Anne Kanengeiser, an actress and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway shows, performed several songs a capella.  In this picture, she’s showing that she downloaded the words to “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” by Rogers and Hammerstein, to sing by special request.

Anne was not the only professional:  singer/songwriter Tara Middleton, an alumna of the KPC Children’s Program, performed a number of songs.  Here she accompanies herself on the guitar.

And, in her debut at KPC, an amateur violinist surprised us all with a deft rendering of a Hungarian Dance by Bela Bartok. Keep practicing, Elizabeth!  We’ll be depending on you for future performances!

Other performances were more spontaneous.  Here young Siddhartha demonstrates the full-length prostration, then monitors a newcomer’s attempt at a five-point touchdown.

We enjoyed seeing old friends again, and new ones too—one man who had followed the webathons with friends in Pennsylvania, disappointed when they decided not to drive down for the party, came by himself, his first visit to KPC!  Others, not Buddhists, came because they make use of the Peace Park or the Mani Jewel Giftstore.  All enjoyed mingling and sharing stories.

And Leslie Mulvilhill’s cakes, of course!

We’ve told the story of the donor, Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje, who made up the all-important difference!  But we feel that, no matter the amount of the individual donation, what really counts is the motivating energy behind it!  For instance, we know of a $50 donation that came from someone who had been laid off, and had returned to school full time.  The $50 represented a week’s worth of groceries.  (Not a small offering!)

So we’d like to tell some stories about donors. (No names, of course!)

Some of the donation energy was generated by family groups:  Buddhists who are not members of our sangha, but who make regular pilgrimages to KPC to walk the stupas and make offerings at the altars.  We know of several such groups, Vietnamese and Burmese, who notified their networks and bundled their contributions together, in several cases bringing actual bundles of checks in white envelopes to the temple.

One such offering came after a family (father, mother, and pre-teen son) happened to visit during the first night of the telethon.  They were drawn in and sat in the audience.  After a while, they sent their young son forward with the cash that they had on hand.  (We invited him to ring the gong, which we did every time a donation came in,)

The second night, the father returned, this time with an envelope full of checks from his family and members of his own sangha.  We invited him to speak on camera, and his loving, spontaneous, and natural speech about the joy of offering brought tears to our eyes—something that couldn’t be scripted!  Simply the output of a life as a practitioner.

Many of the donor stories involve response during the webathon. With a live pledge appeal, inevitably there are those moments when no one is calling, and the goal thermometer is hovering at a standstill.  We tend to remember those donations that broke through when we were stalled.  One such breakthrough came on the first night, when a fifth-grader wrote in that she had broken into her piggy bank, and was donating the entire contents:  $48.  (We were not only grateful, but impressed at her savings! )

The first evening of the telethon ended with pledges for a total of $108,000.  Impressive, but not enough.  Our supporters on line, however, were growing in number as the evening went on, and people on the West Coast came home from work.  They were urging us to continue!  So we did, for a second night.

It was on the second night that we were able to announce the challenge grant made by Lama Dondrup:  to double all proceeds from the second night.  Our adrenalin was high!

The challenge grant made for an exciting second night, as the challenge in turn inspired a number of such grants:  four each for $1000. (One of them, late in the evening, offered to double any $50 donation, up to 20 donations.)  All of them were met.

Then came what seemed to be the breakthrough challenge:  a woman in Australia let us know that she had persuaded her partner (not a Buddhist!) to take out an equity loan on their house for $10,000.  He agreed–on the condition that it be offered as a challenge grant. They were willing to accept two $5000 donations to meet the challenge.  The staff on camera were feeling the clock . . . tick, tick, tick . . . .  It was by this time late in the campaign; wouldn’t anyone who had that much available have offered it by now?

No, as it happened!  Someone in fact HAD been working to scrape together a donation of that size, and, upon succeeding, called it in:  $10,000.

At that point in the telethon, the anchor was on camera, reciting the calculation:  the $10,000 donation, plus $10,000 in matching funds, in turn doubled at the end of the evening by the overall matching grant.  She announced that the $10,000 had now turned into $40,000, and remembers looking at the Ani who was working the camera.  She reports that they locked eyes, both of them realizing that a miracle was about to take place!

In fact, the evening ended with $205,000 pledged, once the matching grant was calculated in.  Still not enough, but there were 24 hours to go . . . .

And then Ven. Lama Dondrup Dorje notified us of his intention to make up the difference.  The miracle was in place!

The first sign of a groundswell was the $60,000:  that is the amount that came in within 24 hours.  When we received word that we needed to meet the payment on our $250,000 note with M & T bank, we  first notified our close group of practitioners, immediately followed by our worldwide newsletter community.

The heartening initial response made the goal seem possible to make, but the next 48 hours would tell the tale.

We decided to do a webathon, a telethon on the web, broadcasting via streaming video (UStream.tv). It was a fund-raising medium we had experimented with once before—on a much smaller scale!

Other organizations have since asked us for advice, and here’s how we did it.

We assembled a system:  a gmail address for communicating pledges, a spreadsheet for recording them, a skype number for call-ins.  We assembled a team:  anchor, co-anchor, gmail responder, Skype call taker, UStream chat monitor, and—all important!—a dedicated spreadsheet scribe.  We assembled a simple set:  a couple of tables, curtained room screens for backdrops, and a whiteboard on an easel for showing results.  (The picture above shows what viewers saw on their computer screens.)

Some technical issues were more challenging.  With a T-1 line already in place, we could broadcast streaming video via a dedicated computer.  But that’s not like having a television studio, folks!  We had one camera that was cabled to the computer, so we could show only what the camera saw.  When we wanted to broadcast YouTube clips, we had to set up a television monitor, and film the screen.  Similarly, to show slides, we set up a screen and projector, and turned the camera to that screen.

With all these items in place, the rest was a matter of people:  talking, interacting, responding.  Some people were with us for the broadcast in the Dharma Room at KPC.  Others were on line, chatting, writing, calling:  encouraging us, cheering results, and, of course, donating.

We are happy to announce that we have now completed the transaction with M & T Bank.  The payout on our line of credit was $243,042.38, representing approximately $238,000 in principle, plus interest and fees.

We thank attorney James Wawrzyniak of Covington and Burling for legal counsel, provided pro bono. We deeply appreciate his efforts on our behalf in concluding the negotiations.

As we continue to receive occasional questions about this financial situation, we thought it would be good to review, once again, the events that led up to this happy conclusion.

1. A group of Buddhists acquired the temple property (seven acres) in 1985, with a mortgage held by Riggs Bank.  That mortgage was re-financed in 1994 to make KPC the borrower.
2. KPC acquired the 65 acre Peace Park in 1989, with a separate mortgage, held by the seller.
3. KPC paid off the Riggs Bank mortgage on the temple property in 1998.
4. In 2005, KPC opened a $250,000 line of credit with Provident Bank  and used the entire amount to pay off the privately-held mortgage on the Peace Park.  The temple property (the seven acres) was used as security.  Provident also asked us to put up a Certificate of Deposit in the amount of $25,000, as security against falling in arrears.
5. In late spring of 2009, Provident Bank was acquired by M & T Bank.
6. As of April 2010, with the economic downturn, KPC was $13,000 in arrears on the loan.  We did have fund-raising efforts in place (“The Rainbow Initiative”) and assumed that the Certificate of Deposit gave us a cushion of several months in which to raise the funds needed.
7. In a letter dated April 22, 2010 from their law firm, M & T called the note, giving KPC until April 30 to pay it off completely.  Although the letter text refers to it as a “certified letter,” it did in fact arrive by regular daily postal delivery on April 23, and was opened by a member of the board the next day.
8. We are not aware of any previous attempts by M & T to solicit the funds.

For those who are interested, we have included a copy of the letter from the law firm representing M & T Bank.

It’s time to party, and you are SO INVITED!

You know who you are! You made it possible to keep the temple doors open (along with the anonymous donor who completed the job)!

Approximately 650 donations, from around the world, helped KPC meet the sudden calling of the note on the temple property. Some people donated multiple times, and we are still matching the records, but at least 500 individuals contributed to the “Save the Temple” appeal.

So we are celebrating with an Indian dinner at the temple in Poolesville on Saturday, May 8, from 6 – 8:30 p.m.

And a professional entertainer or two will be stopping by:  Tara Middleton, whose voice is heard in duet with Jetsunma in many of Jetsunma’s recorded songs, and Anne Kanengeiser, actress and singer, who has appeared in numerous Broadway productions. (The picture at left is “Adalia Tara,” Tara Middleton’s stage name.)

And we’re planning a SimulFest! In case a trip out to Poolesville would involve plane tickets, we are planning to webcast during the party.  Wherever you are, we hope you will gather with friends and family who supported KPC along with you–and party at the same time!

We want our webcast to provide a suitable backdrop for your party, and maybe some inspiration!

We’d like to share communication during the celebration, so we’ll be available for messages on chat at UStream.tv (palyulmedia) and at kpctelethon@gmail.com.

Y-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are happy to report that we have been able to raise the entire amount of the note being called by our bank:  $250,000.  (The blogger is almost too stunned to be able to type in that amount!)

Coincidentally, our attorneys were able to arrange a two-week extension, or “forbearance” period, yesterday.  It will take up to seven days for funds being transferred from overseas to arrive in the KPC account.

As you may know, through our Tuesday and Wednesday evening webcast telethons, we raised a total of $205,126.  A lot of people made this possible! We had worldwide support–with donations ranging from $5 to $10,000.

Then, at the end, a donor came forward with the offer to cover whatever we were not able to raise to meet the amount due. That donor wishes to remain anonymous.

In addition, His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, 12th Throne Holder of the Palyul Lineage, offered a loan of $50,000, in support of the work of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at KPC.  Fortunately, we did not have to accept his offer because of the generous stop-gap donation.  (But we understand that the business manager for His Holiness stayed up all night in case the funds needed to be wired!)

We are thrilled and grateful beyond belief!  We thank our Precious Guru, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, for her blessing and for providing our connection with the precious Palyul Lineage.  We thank our Lineage Masters, whose loving support during this crisis was incalculable, and, of course, we thank the generous donors who made this outcome possible! E Ma Ho!

Despite the dire straits we are in, we did have fun doing a webcast telethon!  Here the MC (KT) waits for a tally to be reported, while Holly works on the figures.

Behind her, Ani Sangye is moderating the UStream chat, and Jana is taking calls. At several points, donors called friends they knew were present:  here’s our monk, Gonpo Yeshe, checking one such message on his cell phone.

What has happened to our finances is what is happening to many other non-profit organizations:  the economic downturn.  We struggle, as many non-profit organizations in these times do, to fulfill our commitments and to provide a place of prayer for all and yet our expenses exceed the donations we receive.

The note in question is a mortgage-backed line of credit.  We had paid off the mortgage on the temple property about twelve years ago, but continued to carry a mortgage on the land across the road, where our Peace Park and many sacred monuments are located. When the necessity arose to complete payments on the Peace Park, we paid that mortgage off through this note, using the temple property as security.

We have been falling quite a bit behind, and of course are in the process of fund raising to cover such expenses.  But this calling in of the note was a surprise.  We had been in touch with the bank about our efforts, and there had been no 30 day warning, or any other notification.

We are, however, aware that this obstacle is an opportunity. Of course, this is a scary moment.  We have no guarantee that we will be able to raise the money, but since we notified our larger community just Saturday evening, we have been able to raise about $65,000.  We are working hard to reach out to those who know us and may be able to help with any amount.

Thank you for your interest and for any support you might kindly offer. May all beings benefit from your generosity!