SELLING THEIR WARES the U.S. Virgin Islands are Interlochen Pathfinder students (from left) Eve Montie, Cici Littlfield-Wilkinson, Helen Montie and Maya Littlefield-Wilkinson. The girls donated $190 in proceeds that will be used in the campaign to keep the school open.

Spring break wasn’t all play for sisters Maya and Cici Littlefield-Wilkinson of Cedar.

The girls, ages 11 and 6, spent part of their break in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands doing bead work that was sold to raise funds to help "save their school," Interlochen Pathfinder in Elmwood Township.

“This is just one example of the way the school community has come together,” said Curtis Kuttnauer of Bingham Township.

Kuttnauer is one of several school supporters who stepped forward earlier this year when Interlochen Center for the Arts announced that it would close Pathfinder at the end of the current school year. Parents who were resolved to continue offering a Pathfinder education without support from Interlochen organized, and developed a business plan in a bid to keep the school open. This week, they are scheduled to make an offer to buy the 22-acre property the school has occupied since it was organized in the early 1970s.

“Both sides (parents and Interlochen) have gotten their appraisals back and we’ve prepared to present an offer to them,” Kuttnauer said, adding that the Elmwood campus is the preferred site on which to continue school operations independently. “There’s an emotional tie to that property … if we can come to an agreement, we hope to be up and running in September.”

Alternative sites have been identified by school supporters in Grand Traverse County as a contingency, but Kuttnauer said none measures up to the current location that includes more than 1,000 feet of undeveloped water frontage on Cedar Lake and another 100 feet of frontage on West Grand Traverse Bay.

“The students are familiar with it … we’d really love to stay there,” he said.

Letters of intent have been collected from parents representing 112 of the school’s current 146-student enrollment, pledging to continue sending their child to Pathfinder next school year.

“We have contracts and have started to receive a significant number of (tuition) checks,” Kuttnauer said.

He said everyone in the school community — students, teachers and parents — is taking ownership in the continuation plans by participating in fundraising efforts. In addition to the $190 raised by the Littlefield-Wilkinson girls through the sale of their bead work, seventh graders are working with a parent volunteer to develop a web site called “Save Our School.” Student-produced artwork is scheduled to be sold to benefit the school in conjunction with Month of the Young Child celebrations later this month in Traverse City. In lieu of presents, some school families celebrating a child’s birthday have asked that contributions be made to the school.

Pledges and contributions reportedly totaling more than $250,000 have been collected to establish an endowment for the school. The parents are optimistic that Pathfinder can still flourish despite results from a survey commissioned by Interlochen late last year that indicated a very small population in the region is willing to pay what it takes to operate the private school. Full time tuition at Pathfinder this year is $8,900.

Jennifer Littlefield-Wilkinson, a Traverse City native and mother of Maya and Cici, returned to the Grand Traverse area last year after living the past five years in Vermont.

“I had always known about Pathfinder, but I was amazed at what a wonderful school it is,” she said.

Further information about fundraising activities or school programing is available by calling 941-1300.