Letter from Gil Fronsdal & Andrea Fella

As we finish our second amazing year of running our retreat center we have a clearer understanding and vision of what will help the center thrive well into the future. Coincidently and surprisingly we have been given the opportunity to accomplish this!

Recently, the property next door went up for sale. It includes one forested acre with a 3-bedroom house. Owning this property will allow us to have more resident volunteers caring for our center and our retreats. This is probably the single most important step in creating a strong foundation for our future.

This new property will provide us the extraordinary opportunity to expand the natural setting for the retreat center. It also preserves the quiet and beauty of our retreat environment – the house is only 50 feet from our meditation hall!

The house makes an ideal residence for our teachers. It will offer them a better space to work, collaborate, and bring their families along as they teach retreats.  It also provides housing for training the next generation of teachers.

The forested surroundings will give us more space for walking meditation and private reflection in nature. We can also use this additional acre to create a community room for study retreats and disciplines such as yoga and qi gong.

Purchasing this property has become a possibility! In July, a generous supporter purchased the house in order to provide us time to raise the money to buy it from him for the $750,000 he paid. Please help ensure that this opportunity doesn’t slip away—the sooner we can buy it the sooner we can use it and benefit from it.

We are confident our collective generosity will nurture our community-run center, bringing more and more benefits to our world.  With your donations and good-wishes you can help IRC thrive as a retreat center and as a model for what is possible.

With much gratitude,

Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella

---