MIDDLESEX TWP — The president of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy on Thursday night charged a group of about 40 supporters to spread the word about the fundraising effort under way to restore the lake.

Siggy Pehel said the group is growing. He said the conservancy had 25 members and about $500 after a meeting in April.

Now it has more than 500 members and has more than $40,000.

The group, formed last year after the state’s Fish and Boat Commission drained the lake because of a structurally deficient dam, seeks to raise more than $4.2 million to help restore the lake.

The Fish and Boat Commission has no money to repair the dam so the conservancy and its leaders understand that only a grassroots effort will restore the lake.

Pehel told the group at the township municipal building that the movement is gaining momentum, and now is the time to undertake the conservancy’s first membership and donation drive.

Pehel hopes the group will grow to more than 1,000 members and raise more than $100,000 by the end of the year.

He urged supporters to go door-to-door to solicit memberships and donations.

“In order to get this done, we can’t do it by ourselves,” he said. “The load is a lot lighter with more hands.”

Pehel said his goal is to raise the necessary funds in five years, a “monumental task” that only can be done by a dedicated group of volunteers.

He wants to accomplish that with several fundraising efforts.

For instance, he said the conservancy’s leaders are in the process of researching for grants, soliciting donations from large corporations in Pittsburgh, and focusing on smaller businesses and on families.

To help the cause, a representative of the Mars Rod and Gun Club on Thursday night donated $500 on behalf of the club.

He said the donation would likely become an annual occurrence, and added that the gun club plans to have a charity event for the conservancy in the fall.

And the conservancy is also getting help from the smallest of places.

Evan Kremer, a 9-year-old Penn Township resident, attended the meeting with his parents and presented nearly $250 he’s raised by selling cookies and other items at garage sales.

Kremer, who fished Glade Run with his father since he was 2, is the boy on the cover of the conservancy’s brochure, which shows him standing with a bowed head in front of the empty lake.

Evan, along with his father, John, has scoured the dry lake bed for fishing lures, which they clean and resell for the conservancy.

The conservancy plans another public meeting in several months to update members about its progress.

Until then, people like Middlesex Township resident Reid Joyce will be out raising money for a cause he truly believes in.

“This lake is worth saving,” he said. “And I think this group is taking the right approach to save it.”

Anyone interested in helping the conservancy can do so by mailing a donation to: Glade Run Lake Conservancy, 166 Love Road, Valencia, PA 16059.