Brother <<Last Name>>,

Happy Birthday Brother Clifton

As I have mentioned in several emails over the last couple of weeks, DKE is shifting our focus to improving the internal living environment at 13 South Avenue.  Making the house more attractive to current and future brothers is critical to our success as a chapter as the student housing market both on and off campus becomes more competitive each school year.  Significant financial investments will need to be made over the next five to ten years to make sure that the house remains a viable housing option for the next generation of DKEs.  In the meantime, though, we’re hoping to maintain the momentum generated from so many recent chapter successes by making some small dollar investments into key areas of the house needing immediate attention.  To raise money for these investments, DKE will be throwing a birthday celebration in honor of our friend from the heart forever, Clifton Beckwith Brown on September 25^th.  With your financial support, we intend to surprise him with a couple of gifts to make his chapter house just a little bit more enticing to today’s Cornell students.  I hope you all will consider logging onto our website’s giving page here and make a contribution to the gifts proposed below.  We’ll be purchasing these gifts in the order listed below and hope to raise enough money between now and Sunday September 25^th to obtain all of them.

Gift #1

The house refrigerators in both the kitchen and pantry are aging and in need of replacements.  An industrial sized refrigerator in the kitchen and a standard kitchen refrigerator in the pantry will run about $5,500. 

Gift #2

The first floor is utilized for social engagements more than ever before, but the house is still using older audio components installed around 2010. An audio system refresh that utilizes modern, Bluetooth enabled receivers and speakers will be a significant upgrade over our existing technologies.  We anticipate a cost of about $2,000.

Gift #3

The weight room created in the basement two years ago sits on top of an aging wood floor that has seen better days.  Installing rubberized flooring over the wood and adding mats under workout benches will provide a safer and more attractive workout space for the undergraduates.  Rubber flooring plus mats is estimated to be about $1,500.

Gift #4

The dining room chairs have taken a beating over the last ten to fifteen years and many of them could use a replacement seat cushion.  We will use the remaining dollars available to purchase replacement seat cushions for as many chairs as possible.

I hope you’ll consider a contribution to these worthwhile gifts in honor of what would be Brother Clifton Beckwith Brown’s 146^th birthday.  I’ll be in touch shortly with updates on our total contributions and let you know how many gifts we’ll be able to make to the house by Clifton’s birthday on Sunday September 25^th.
Thanks!

In the bonds,

Mike Furman ‘79
furmanme@gmail.com
267-825-1233