Keeler Tavern Museum launches $100K fundraising initiative

Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center in Ridgefield has launched a fundraising initiative to raise $100,000 by July 4 for building renovations, landscape improvements, site re-imagining and loan repayment.

The “Cannonball Challenge” is part of the museum”™s ongoing capital campaign, “It”™s Our Turn to Make History!”

Challenge gifts from the general public up to $50,000 will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a local philanthropist, for a total of $100,000. The goal is to transform the museum”™s two Ridgefield properties ”“ 132 Main St., the site of the historic Keeler Tavern, and 152 Main St. ”“ into a single, unified campus.

Thanks to some 100 gifts at the Leadership level, the capital campaign is 90 percent of the way to the $1.5 million mark, according to the museum. The Cannonball Challenge will enable the facility to cross that milestone and make progress toward its stretch goal of $2 million.

The challenge takes its name from the cannonball, fired by British soldiers at Keeler Tavern during the Revolutionary War, that is still embedded in the tavern building”™s northeast corner post.  Full details about the campaign, the Cannonball Challenge, and how to make a donation can be found at www.keelertaverncampaign.com.