<div>Help us raise the funds needed
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<div>It has been ten years since we opened Belle Grove Plantation to the public. In this time, we have offered bed and breakfast service, afternoon tea service, historical location tours and special events, both public and private. We increased our historic program with the opening of the non-profit James Madison Belle Grove Foundation in July 2015. Through this foundation, we have been able to not only preserve the mansion, grounds and artifacts recovered, but open our location to farther research and study of the past through archaeology, study of our past genealogy as well as programs such as our Homeschool Series, which brings homeschoolers to the location to study subjects that are related to the property. We have opened our grounds to the Rappahannock Tribe, to allow them to return to their possible ancestral home.
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<div>In the past ten years, we have seen guests come from many of the states within the United States as well as other countries including Canada, Austria, Italy, Finland, England, Russia, China, Japan, France, Belgium, and Scotland. In fact, our first overnight guest reservation on August 1, 2013, was from New Zealand. It isn’t unusual for us to welcome foreign guests as well as locate King George County guests.
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<div>Opening Belle Grove as a public location was very hard. It had never been open to the public as we were going to do. We had to build it from the ground up. We had to work hard to spread the word of who we are and what we offered in a very short time. Being a historic location, funding isn’t always very easy at the beginning. But through support and hard work, we succeeded in making it past the “burn out point” of five to seven years.
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<div>The thing is, Belle Grove is a passion for me personally. At the time, we found it, I was burning out from working in the corporate world as a banker and recruiter. I didn’t want my life to just pass by with little to nothing to show for it. I wanted it to have meaning. When we found Belle Grove, it needed me… and I needed Belle Grove. I brought my research skills to uncovering Belle Grove’s historic past. Bring back pieces that had gotten lost to time. So later generations would know what I already know about Belle Grove. It was the site of many important points of American history. Not all good, but not all bad. But important to remember and to be told.
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<div>At the beginning of 2023, we had developed one of our most ambitious years in the way of events and programs. We wanted to offer more opportunities for the public to come and experience Belle Grove. While the year started out wonderfully, things got in the way as we progressed through the year. The economy would play a big part in the lack for event ticket sales, overnight guests, and tea reservations. Everyone is feeling the pinch. We worked to keep the costs down to afford the opportunity for more to come.
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<div>Then at the end of January, I was hit with the first of a year-long illness. Starting with a sinus infection that took one and half months and two different antibiotics to get rid of. This was followed by pneumonia a week later. Then two weeks later by Norovirus (a really nasty stomach bug) that took two weeks to recover from. Then at the beginning of July, we found I had four pulmonary embolisms (two in each lung). Two months later, the pulmonary embolisms were gone, but I had a lot of fluid at the bottom of each lung. The fluid kept increasing and started to fill my tissues all over. My blood pressure, which normally runs 120 over 70 was now shooting to 160. 170, and 180. My blood sugars were all over the place, no matter what I ate. By November, I was sent to the hospital for eight days to get the extra 20 pounds of fluid. Tests were run during my hospital stay, only to find that my heart was fine, with no valve issues and pumping the correct amount around my body. My kidneys were working fine. No blockages and looked good including the levels. My liver is fine as well. Basically, the cardiologist and kidney doctors were scratching their heads and saying that they had no idea why my body was going haywire. I have a request for an appointment with an internist in Birmingham. Alabama in hopes for figure out what is going on.
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<div>The worst part is the fatigue. I can’t do the things I did before. I am luck to get breakfast and teas done. I have had to stop doing dinners because I am so wiped out. I used to be able to work for days. But now I have to rest, or I fall asleep as soon as I sit down. You can understand how hard it has been to go from very strong and active to weak and sleepy all the time. It just isn’t me.
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<div>But because of all this, our year has not turned out was well as we had hoped. In fact, we are pretty much behind on everything. I realize we aren’t the only ones. But desperate times calls for desperate measures.
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<div>We are asking for donations in exchange for gift cards and services. We hope that you will consider giving to the James Madison Belle Grove Foundation as your end of the year giving. And that there will be somewhat of a return on your contributions that you can gift to family and friends … and even yourself.
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<div>Please consider giving to James Madison Belle Grove Foundation through our GoFundMe campaign or you can mail a check made out to the James Madison Belle Grove Foundation to:
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<div>James Madison Belle Grove Foundation
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<div>9221 Belle Grove Drive
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<div>King George, Virginia 22485
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<div>We deeply appreciate your support and prayers as we manage our way through this winter season.
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<div>Michelle Darnell
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<div>Giving Levels
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<div>$1,000
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<div>One Overnight Night Stay with Dinner for Two and a $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $520)
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<div>$500
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<div>Two $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $200)
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<div>$250
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<div>One Afternoon Tea for Two and $100 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $170)
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<div>$100
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<div>Two $25 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $50)
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<div>$50
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<div>$15 Gift Card (no expiration date – total value $15)
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Hampton DeJarnette

Cynthia Gorman

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MaryKay Savage

Ann Kammerer

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Bill Hutchins

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Nancy Collins

Bob Giles

Danny Bombard

Marilyn Davis

JoAnn Cooper

Christina Maximova

Alissa Lewis

Help us raise the funds needed

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

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OneTrust next-app audience

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NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

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US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

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GoFundMe Employees

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Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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p2p legacy startfundraising page

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AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

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charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

currencyCode

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

writePath

Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

Influencer - Prod

US fundraisers and US users

userEmail

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isCharityCo

email

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fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Help us raise the funds needed

Still $1,725 to go. Help us build momentum.