Over four years ago a small group of Citrus County concerned citizens created the nonprofit group, Old Homosassa Historical Preservation Society.  Their main purpose at the time was to save the Old Homosassa Water Tower from destruction.  After purchasing the water tower from the Homosassa Special Water District, the group joined with the Citrus County Historical Society as the Old Homosassa Heritage Council (OHHC).

I’ve been part of OHHC almost from the beginning.  I started out as a member, then took on the job of Historian and Corresponding Secretary.  I also created, designed and now maintain the website.  Living and being active in a small community, I get to wear many hats!  I am so fortunate to be a member of this organization and part of this dedicated team.

While the goal of the OHHC is to educate, inspire, and strengthen our community identity, our first project is the Old Homosassa Water Tower.  We crunched the numbers and decided that we needed to raise $60,000 to repair, restructure and paint the historical landmark.

OHHC has had many very generous money donations over the past four years and also held numerous fund raisers.  Way back in March 2015, we had our first informational booth at the Shrimpaplooza.  We followed this successful event with a booth at just about every local function held in the past three years.  We had raffles for great donations from local businesses and four different editions of the very popular OHHC t-shirts.  OHHC also has a GoFundMe page. Two years ago OHHC held the sold-out “Homossasa Goes Hollywood” at the Citrus County Historical Society’s Old Courthouse Museum and the Valerie Theater.   OHHC also held yard sales at the Old Homosassa Community Days in 2017 and 2018 where over $2,000 was raised at each.  This year we also held the “Cocktail Hour for the Tower”–another sold out event which just put us over the top of our goal of $60,000.

The repair and restructuring took place as soon as the group raised the first $25,000 back in June of 2016.

And I’m very excited to announce that the chairperson of OHHC, Marian MacRae, recently signed the contract to have the tower painted in the next 45 days.  Woo-Hoo!

Our fundraising isn’t finished yet, though.  We still need to do some landscaping and add lighting.  But we are almost there!

And then we can take on our next project!