Help carry
Margee’s torch.

As we reach out to radio stations and news organizations, I wanted the website to give new visitors an immediate emotional connection to Margee’s story.

I felt that helping people connect with her was the most powerful way I could capture their attention and move their hearts toward what she created.

The new opening film is the first step toward transforming the website itself into a lasting legacy for Margee—a place to preserve her story, gather memories, and help others discover the Christian faith, compassion, and hospitality behind Rising Phoenix.

I invite you to visit, experience the new opening, and share it with someone who might care.

Our radio outreach has included requests to WCBC, WFWM, and WYPR to consider a story, interview, or community announcement. We have also approached the Cumberland Times-News. Coverage has not been confirmed, but we hope these connections will bring new people to Margee’s story.

Taking the appeal nationwide

We are now expanding our appeal to Christian radio stations across the country, asking them to help us find someone who could carry Margee’s torch.

The request is simple: visit the website, experience her story, and consider helping us connect with a capable person or organization that could preserve Rising Phoenix and continue her Christian mission.

We are building a national contact list for this effort. Nationwide outreach is beginning; we have not yet contacted every station or secured coverage.

If you know a Christian radio host, station leader, or someone at a national network, a personal introduction would be welcome.

Experience Margee’s story →

On Saturday, October 10, at the Church of the Brethren Mid-Atlantic District Conference held at Camp Mardela, I met David Rogers of Shepherd’s Spring, a Christian retreat center in Maryland.

I told him Margee’s story and made a direct, personal appeal for him to consider purchasing Rising Phoenix.

I was grateful for the opportunity to bring the story to someone connected with Christian retreat ministry. This was an appeal, not an agreement or commitment to purchase.

Our appeal has also been prepared for sharing at a Presbyterian Women’s gathering, with an updated printable announcement sent to June Eakin.

Because Margee was a Presbyterian minister, this is a meaningful opportunity for her story to reach women within the faith community that helped shape her ministry.

We are grateful for help bringing the effort to their attention. Someone hearing the story may know a church, organization, or individual equipped to consider Rising Phoenix’s future.

Alongside these personal connections, we have been working on a broader email campaign, researching relevant organizations and preparing individual messages.

Outreach has included Christian camps and retreat centers, church networks, nonprofit organizations, and regional and faith-based media. Each approach asks a practical question: could this recipient evaluate the opportunity, offer guidance, or introduce someone capable of becoming a future steward?

An experienced retreat operator may help explain what a sustainable plan requires. A church network may know a potential buyer. A journalist may bring the story to someone we would otherwise never reach.

Sending a message is only a first step. The work now is to discover which connections can become useful conversations.

A meeting with USDA Rural Development is scheduled for Thursday, October 15.

I hope to learn whether any programs, resources, or connections could be relevant to a sustainable future for Rising Phoenix, and what a qualified acquiring organization would need to consider.

This is an exploratory conversation. No funding commitment or determination of eligibility has been made.

Katie McCarthy Evenbeck, CEO of United Camps, Conferences & Retreats (UCCR), has welcomed an opportunity to discuss our preservation effort. I still need to arrange that call.

An organization experienced in retreat operations could offer a valuable perspective on facilities, staffing, leadership, and financial sustainability.

I hope the conversation will help clarify possible paths forward or lead to useful introductions. No acquisition or operating partnership has been agreed upon.

I have prepared a personal appeal to my former employer, Basim Mansour, owner of Michael & Son, inviting him to visit the website and consider Margee’s story.

The appeal asks whether he has ideas about preserving her legacy and Christian mission: helping ordinary women deepen their faith through service, while offering welcome and opportunities to work to people who needed a place and a new beginning.

My hope is that reaching out to someone from my own working life may open another useful conversation.

With the property auction scheduled to close October 27, our central need remains a capable buyer or organization with the resources and experience to acquire Rising Phoenix and sustain its future.

We are no longer accepting financial pledges.

No acquisition, funding, or operating partnership has been secured. We welcome thoughtful proposals that honor Margee’s legacy and offer a workable future for the property.

You can help

• Introduce a potential buyer or steward with the experience and resources to evaluate the opportunity.
• Share the website and film personally, with a few words about why the story matters to you.
• Connect us with Christian radio or other media that might help the appeal reach further.
• Contribute memories and photographs to help build Margee’s lasting online legacy.

For private introductions, email contact@risingphoenixlegacy.org. Memories and offers of help can also be shared through the website.

Visit Rising Phoenix Legacy →

I cannot promise what will happen at the auction. But I can keep telling Margee’s story and inviting people to consider what might still be possible.

My hope is that this effort will help preserve both the place she created and the deeper legacy behind it—a welcome rooted in Christian faith, compassion, and the possibility of a new beginning.

Thank you for helping her story reach others.

With gratitude and hope,
Adam
Rising Phoenix Legacy Preservation Effort