PORTSMOUTH—One of Portsmouth’s fastest-growing non-profits, The Trillium Project, only made its name known a few years ago with the mission to provide more equitable public arts projects to the community. The group has done a bit in the warmer months, where they could hit the streets and create opportunities for the community without the hindrance of bad weather. In the colder months, their time has been spent planning and coming up with a massive overhaul in how the community may see art in the future, especially with its massive plan known as Second Glance.

Second Glace has completely wrapped its planning session and Trillium now looks forward to implementing some of that plan as they secure funding to bring plans to life.

As Trillium awaits to announce major first steps in the project, they are planning and implementing two fundraisers to generate income to accomplish their mission.

The first is a plan that will take months to complete in the form of a split the pot event.

“The raffle is a split the pot 50/50 that will take place during a live Facebook drawing on July 31 at 6 p.m.,” Trillium Founder Amanda Lewis said. “The winner will receive half the pot and the rest will stay with Trillium. As of today, the pot has grown to $2,010 and it will grow every day until we draw.”

Tickets are $5 individually for five $20.

“So far, people are really embracing our fundraising efforts. In the first two weeks, the pot doubled,” Lewis said. “I hope this continues until we have a massive pot to split come July 31. For us, this gives us funding to put into the efforts of the Second Glance Initiative—artist fees, paint and supplies that we need to implement public arts projects in Portsmouth.”

The total budget of the massive Second Glace Initiative is currently $388,766 if fully funded.

“This is a great plan, because different arts projects are broken down within the overall scope and can operate on partial funding,” Lewis explained. “This overall budget is best case scenario as we get funding for everything we want to do in upcoming years.”

Lewis explained that every fundraiser they make successful is one step closer to implementing massive artistic change.

“Fundraisers are critical right now. Whether it is $1,500 or $15,000, that puts us one step closer to doing everything we want to do for Portsmouth. We can have the largest impact possible the closer we get to full funding,” Lewis said. “A lot of the grants we apply for are a one on one cash match, so having these fundraisers to match with grants helps us take big steps in securing complete funding.”

The second fundraiser being planned is a formal dinner and exhibition in Adams County.

“Flock Dining is a fine dining business out of Adams County, Ohio. They are partnering with Trillium to fundraise in a fun way that will include a six-course meal, plus a mocktail hour, plus a gallery exhibit in their greenhouse space the night of the dinner,” Lewis explained. “All proceeds from that dinner will go towards Trillium to support Second Glance Initiative and the non-profit Flock runs called Hope You’re Well, which provides support for foster youth in Adams County aging out of the system.”

The dinner will take place on June 14 at 4 p.m. The cost is $100 per person. It will be held at The Landing at Brush Creek, 1805 Waggoner Riffle Rd, West Union, OH.

“We are really excited about this one. When we sat down with the owners of Flock, Blake and Colleen, they were incredible and touched on a lot of the things we want to do. They also have the level of dedication to community that we do. The reasons they do what they do are the same reasons we do what we do. We think this could lead to a lot of future opportunities for us both.”

Flock is a two-woman team passionate about food and the experiences around it. Chef Blake and Colleen launched their dining project this January with “flock-up” events, bakery deliveries, and private dinners.

“With our hearts in the power of food, we also believe in the power of community support, which is why we created Hope You’re Well (HYW),” the Flock duo explained. “The HYW mission is to ease the transition for young adults as they age out of the foster system providing life skills, housing, and work opportunities. This event will help us get closer to the goal of buying the farm that will become the Hope You’re Well house in 2025. As artists ourselves, we are honored to be hosting on such a fun night with the incredible Trillium Project.”

Not only is the Trillium gang working hard on fundraising, but they are also looking forward to 2024 implementation. The group indicated they had big news coming soon about the progress of Second Glance in these early steps.

“We’re excited to get started in 2024. We’ve spent the entire winter planning implementation and strategy,” Lewis said. “People will really see us out and about in coming weeks as we hit the ground running in accomplishing out mission.”

To get tickets for either fundraiser, interested parties may reach out to Trillium Project on Facebook or Instagram. They may also be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling Lewis at 740.352.4498.

Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved.