Last week, the Western New York Land Conservancy and Friends of Jackson Falls received notice of a $20,000 grant from the Gallogly Family Foundation to help save Jackson Falls in Aurora, N.Y., and turn it into a nature preserve. This grant is a challenge gift, which means the community must step up to match it, dollar for dollar, in order to for it be used towards creating the Jackson Falls Preserve.
But there’s a twist: a single donor must match the entire $20,000 challenge gift. That donor will have one of five benches to be placed at the preserve named in their honor. As a special bonus, those five benches will be hand-crafted by Roycroft Renaissance Master Artisan Thomas Pafk, who is also a neighbor to the Jackson Falls property. Only two of those five benches are still available to donors of $20,000, so time is of the essence.