ELY – The Ely Folk School marks one year of existence this month and board members, volunteers and supporters gathered to celebrate the success of the endeavor and to look forward to continued growth.

Touted as a do-it-yourself antidote to the digital world, Board Chair Paul Schurke said the school’s success is due to “a large amount of elbow grease by an awful lot of people.”

“Nearly 500 of those do-it-yourselfers here in Ely registered for our classes,” he said. “The EFS is truly the place for learning traditional crafts and skills associated with Ely’s cultural heritage and our wilderness legacy.”

The Ely Folk School is part of a growing movement launched in Scandinavia more than 100 years ago. The earliest schools were started by grassroots groups of local farmers and later labor unions, and then the movement was carried forward by rural townspeople. “Their thrust was to return education to the community at a time when it was largely restricted to the upper classes,” he said.

“As you know, we are here to celebrate EFS’s success, Schurke continued, “but we are also here to celebrate the success of all of Ely in the past year. I am happy that we have become a connecting point for the community and we can feel the critical mass of downtown Ely shifting up the hill thanks in part to what we are doing.”

He ran through the numbers: In addition to the hundreds of class registrants, EFS offered about 150 different and unique classes in the past year, and there nearly 100 more classes slated for the rest of this year. “We’ve had three folk dances, two folk music events,” Schurke said, “and people in our town like to eat so we enjoyed many, many potluck dinners and movie nights.”

The green space in the adjacent property next to the Sheridan Street facility is well-used for campfire and Tuesday Night Live events. This year, the ongoing Birch Bark Canoe Building event, gathers big crowds on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

About a dozen board members are helping to direct the mission and vision of the EFS. “Some organizers and board members have moved on to other adventures and we have four more board members ready to take their place,” Schurke said. “We are very much a hands-on board. They don’t just show up for meetings, they pitch in to get things done.”

On the financial side of the ledger, the EFS met their budget in the first year of operation. Revenue topped $100,000 in the first year, according to treasurer Tanner Ott. Donations totaled $68,000. Tuition received was about $36,000. EFS merchandise added another $4,000. “Currently, we have $33,500 on hand,” Schurke said.

“In the year ahead, we have a budget of about $60,000 and anticipate modest growth at about 10 percent per year,” Schurke said. He said the Board is targeting to reach $25,000 in tuition and to raise some $35,000 in donations and memberships.

He pointed put that most of the expenses are related to people, including instructors and staff. “We don’t have much in other administrative or legal fees. “Most of our money was spent on people, and that is an important and gratifying way to give back to our community,” he said.

Board Vice-Chair Sarah Malik-Wahls reported on the Ely Folk School’s success in obtaining grants to help fund the operation. Lake Country Power’s Operation Round-up provided $600 for a portable stage; the Gardener Humanities Arts Trust granted $1,400 to fund folk dance events. A $15,000 grant for a partial program coordinator is pending through Minnesota Power. Marketing expansion could be aided beginning next month through the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.

The Ely Folk School currently has 180 individual and family member/donors and 22 business members. An individual membership is $40 and a family membership is $100, which includes a $25 class tuition or merchandise voucher.

The EFS fundraising drive, initiated last month is up to about $2,500.

Operations Director Jaime Brennan noted that 107 classes were conducted out of about 150 offered. “This is the highlight of my job, she said, “to work with all of our instructors to work through the class offerings.” Some of the most popular classes have been in photography and portage pack construction, with many multiple classes conducted.

“Typically, the summer months are extremely busy with classes held just about every day,” Brennan said. The months of April and December were the slowest of the year. “This is our first year and we are still learning,” she said.

The future of the Ely Folk School is high on the list of priorities for the board. “Now that we are a year into this, we are moving from focusing on the day-to-day activities and looking to our future,” said board member Molly Olson. “Looking into the future, it’s impossible to predict what we will face.”

As head of the Futures Committee, Olson has been targeting the population that the Folk School is trying to reach, partnering with other organizations, such as the Community Education program in the Ely School District, continuing to attract high quality instructors, and evaluating resources to maintain financial stability.

“We envision the Sheridan Street facility to be the central hub with connections to other sites,” Olson said. “We are exploring options on how best to use our facility. We continue to update our strategic plan. We want to keep our organization flexible and open to change. We want to dream big yet stay focused to achieve our vision.”

And with that, those in attendance helped themselves to a variety of homemade pies and ice cream.