Lake Winnecook’s Next Chapter:
Help Us Raise the Final $100,000
Together, we’ve brought the next step in rehabilitating Lake Winnecook within reach. Now, with the year-end deadline approaching, we’re asking our community to help finish what we’ve started.
Friends of Lake Winnecook’s Let’s Make It Clean, Not Green Campaign has secured $2 million in federal funding, received generous community gifts and pledges, and obtained a $450,000 dollar-for-dollar matching commitment from our Silent Friend. What once seemed like an enormous undertaking — raising nearly $3 million to improve our lake — is now within reach.
We have just $100,000 left to raise by Dec. 31, 2026, to claim the full match and bring our funding total, including the federal grant, to $2.9 million.
What Your Support Is Making Possible
To everyone who has already donated or pledged: Thank you. Your generosity has helped turn an ambitious goal into a project we can move toward with confidence.
The federal funding is secured, permitting is underway, and we remain confident that an alum treatment will take place in 2027. By binding excess phosphorus in lake-bottom sediments, the treatment will reduce the phosphorus available to fuel algae growth.
This treatment is an important part of a broader, science-based effort to improve Lake Winnecook’s health. It addresses phosphorus already stored in the lake, while ongoing watershed work addresses new phosphorus entering it. Both efforts matter to the lake’s long-term future.
Take the $500 Shoreline Challenge
As we enter the campaign’s final months, we’re inviting approximately 200 shoreline property owners who have not yet contributed to join the effort. If each property owner pledges $500, we can raise the remaining $100,000 and meet the requirements of our Silent Friend’s matching challenge.
The opportunity is simple:
You pledge $500.
Our Silent Friend contributes another $500.
Lake Winnecook receives $1,000.
That means your contribution has double the impact — and helps our community secure funding that would otherwise go unclaimed.
You can spread your $500 pledge over three months:
$167 by October 31
$167 by November 30
$166 by December 31
Without sufficient new participation, we could lose as much as $100,000 in matching funds. Every new contribution helps close that gap and moves us closer to the finish line.
Already Contributed? Help Spread the Word
If you’ve already helped make this progress possible, you can help in another meaningful way: Talk with a neighbor who hasn’t yet participated — share why you chose to support the campaign and invite them to join you. A personal conversation can help someone understand both the progress we’ve made and the opportunity still before us.
Let’s Finish the Job Together
To accept the $500 Shoreline Challenge and pay by credit card, simply click here. You can also pledge or donate by mail by clicking here.
We’ve accomplished something remarkable together. By reaching our final $100,000 goal by December 31, we can claim the full match and help protect Lake Winnecook for years to come.