The Cabin's 2022 Annual Report

Message from the Board Presidents

One of the main challenges we faced in 2022 was navigating the continued effects of the COVID 19 pandemic as we resumed our programming while keeping members of our community and staff safe With careful deliberation, creative problem solving, the strong relationship between the staff and board, along with the support of our members and donors, the organization remained resilient and in some ways stronger.

On a positive note, the pandemic helped us to rethink our administrative priorities. We focused on our organizational structure, added new staff positions (including a marketing and communications manager as well as financial and program coordinators), and shifted job structures internally. We believe this restructuring will further allow The Cabin to pursue its mission and strategic plan

Steve Frinsko Outgoing Board President

Emily Lavelle Board President Kurt Zwolfer Executive Director

Regardless of how much change and disruption we might face, one thing remains certain the support of The Cabin community To all of the donors, members, sponsors, granters, and ticket holders who supported us this year, we owe you our gratitude and thanks We are certain to face challenges in 2023, but with the steadfast support of our community we will continue to build our impact with readers and writers across the Treasure Valley and beyond

Thank you.

Message from the Executive Director

The heart of The Cabin is our community programming. 2022 was a tremendous year for outreach and growth, with highlights across our programs:

After online offerings for an entire season, Readings & Conversations pivoted to a hybrid structure in January, with Boise’s own Tony Doerr kicking off our return to the theater

Our Summer Writing Camps enrollment was at an all time high, with long waiting lists for our most popular camps

Our Writers in the School program nearly doubled from its low point two years ago We placed local writers in 41 Treasure Valley classrooms, including the Boise School District summer school program, for a total of 486 hours of creative writing instruction

Our twice a month free drop in Writing Workshops for adults, as well as our six week themed workshops, grew in registrations. Several were also held in person again. We honored three Boise writers at our Belated Book Launch Party at Lost Grove Brewery as part of Ghosts & Projectors, our series devoted to local and regional writers. In August, we had a reading party at The Gene Harris Band Shell to celebrate the local writers published in this year ’ s edition of Writers in the Attic, on the theme “Moon.”

We ended the fiscal year fighting for the freedom to read. Partnering with Rediscovered Books, we raised $10,000 for 100 volunteers to hand out 1,000 books that have been challenged or banned in Idaho and across the United States Our Read Freely campaign continued in September with a collaboration between the Ada County Library, City Club, and PEN America to present a panel on the pressure libraries are facing during this extraordinary push to restrict access to books in our community

Thanks to all of you for sticking with us during the challenges of the last few years We look forward to your support in the future as we continue to fulfill our mission of forging community through the voices of all readers, writers, and learners.

Thank you.

YOUR DOLLAR WENT

Income Total $855,168

Program Revenue ($288,864)

Fundraising Campaigns ($195,409)

Grants ($151,588)

COVID Relief ($103,053)

Individual Giving ($55,411)

Sponsorship ($42,900)

Read Freely Project ($10,900)

Other ($7,043)

Management and Operations ($231,077)

Readings & Conversations ($217,914)

Development ($111,116)

Writers in the Schools ($88,382)

Summer Writing Camps ($73,552)

Writing Workshops ($23,257)

Building Maintenance ($21,553)

Writers in the Attic ($19,163)

Ghosts & Projectors ($18,187)

Other/Storyfort ($2,950)

Readings & Conversations

Writers in the Schools Summer Writing Camps

For more than 20 years, The Cabin’s Readings & Conversations series has featured literary superstars, bestselling authors, and high-profile thinkers to jumpstart community conversations on critical issues.

Our Writers in the Schools program is designed to foster creativity, communication, and self-discovery in 3rd–12th grade classrooms and juvenile detention centers throughout the Treasure Valley. Teaching-writers lead creative writing, reading, and discussion projects.

The Cabin’s Summer Writing Camps help kids cultivate a lifelong love of writing through fun, week-long literary adventures. Teaching-writers share their expertise in poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, speculative fiction, and more to help students build confidence in their writing.

Writing Workshops Ghosts & Projectors Writers in the Attic

The Cabin’s Writing Workshops provide the support, tools, and community needed to develop as a writer. Workshops range from single-evening events to six-week intensives. Participants receive individualized guidance from teaching-writers and fellow workshoppers.

The Cabin’s Ghosts & Projectors reading series pairs experimental, innovative, and emerging writers of all genres with writers from the Treasure Valley. Maggie Nelson, Cathy Park Hong, and Emily Ruskovich have graced our stages and our literary community has felt and thought more deeply because of this.

An annual publication by The Cabin, Writers in the Attic is a contest designed for Idaho writers, both emerging and established, to publish work related to a one-word theme. With submissions blindjudged by a local writer of acclaim, selected poems and fiction are published in a yearly anthology.

4,100

Books purchased through Rediscovered Books and distributed to Readings & Conversations attendees over the 2021-2022 season

271

Campers attended The Cabin's summer writing camps on topics ranging from sci fi to playwriting

Pulitzer Prizes won by authors featured during the 2021 2022 Readings & Conversations series

Submissions to The Cabin's Writers in the Attic series on the theme "Moon"

Raised for the Read Freely Project, a partnership with Rediscovered Books 100 volunteers distributed 1,000 banned or challenged books to readers in our community

14

Attendees at The Cabin’s Belated Book Launch, featuring local authors who had books published during the COVID pandemic

New employees joined the team. Welcome, Jordyn, Emmy, Chris, and Adie

of WITS residencies served students in under resourced schools and juvenile detention centers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Steve

Back Row (left to right)

Kurt Zwolfer, Chris DeVore, Emmy Parton, Joel Wayne Front Row (left to

Emerson, Hillary Bilinski, Megan Williams, Adie Bartron Not pictured: Jordyn Marcroft