The Illick's Mill Project has accomplished more in its seven-year existence than anyone thought it could. Now in phase Three C of a three phase restoration project, the Mill is within a year of opening as an environmental education center. With its elegant Gala, RiverFusion music & nature festival, well planned environmental projects, successful fund-raisers, and grant writing, the Project is a great asset to the community. As of March 2007, it has raised approximately 880 thousand dollars toward the restoration of Illick's Mill into an environmental education center. Every year the Project attracts thousands of people to Bethlehem for exciting events, in addition to creating an excellent hands-on learning experience for Liberty High School students.

The first Illick's Mill Project class wrote the Project's first environmental objectives, as well as the mission statement, and researched both historical restoration, and environmental centers to help create the preliminary architectural plans. This class also came up with the idea for the first two annual event fund-raisers: The October Gala and RiverFusion. The first Gala was held on October 14, 2001. The event raised 3 thousand dollars. The first RiverFusion, spearheaded by student Keegan Lerch, was headlined by Rusted Root, attracted 3 thousand people, and raised 30 thousand dollars, not bad for 26 high school seniors. Also that year, students created the environmental village. 10 local environmental organizations provided information for activities. The 100 plants used to decorate the village were later used in a watershed planting. Students in this class, particularly Nate Picone, also created templates for future grants;

Dan Bednar started the first website, and with help from Josh Schnalzer, created the Illick's Mill letterhead and our Case Statement. Perhaps most importantly, Laurel Trautmann wrote our first large and successful grant, earning the Illick's Mill Partnership 25 thousand dollars from the Rider-Pool Foundation.

The Illick's Mill class of 2002-2003 raised significant amounts of money through grants. Ryan Werkeiser successfully completed a 90 thousand dollar grant from the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission and a match grant for 60 thousand dollars from the Laros Foundation. Architectural plans were completed and clean-up at the Mill began in preparation for restoration. Clayton Chiles also continued the National Historic Registry Application begun in 2001 by Michelle Longenbach and Dana Braunreuther, and for the first time, the application was considered ready to submit. On Earth Day, this class ran bird counts with the help of local elementary schools. The students, both young and old, had a great time and submitted their results to the Great American Bird Count census. This class also began significant environmental work by planting 300 native species of plants in two locations: near Municipal Ice Rink and on Monocacy Creek near the Mill.

The third Illick's Mill class, which graduated in May of 2004, also achieved many great things. Adam Longenbach, Paul Brones, and Katie McIlhaney won the Environmental Excellence Award along with 10 thousand dollars and an all-expenses paid trip to San Diego on behalf of the Partnership. Both the Gala in 2003 and RiverFusion in 2004 were considered extremely successful, earning the project 15 thousand dollars with headliners, The Ataris and Something Corporate. The native plants on display at that year's Riverfusion were planted in an environmentaly distressed area of Monocacy Creek Park.

The Illick’s Mill class of the 2004-2005 school year accomplished several goals in their year. This class replaced the rotten beams inside the mill with new ones, and in addition they replaced floors on all three levels. The class re-fitted the Mill with a new Warmboard heating system which they chose for its environmental sustainability. New exterior stone steps and an elevator shaft were also constructed. The construction work of this year was headed by Scott Edwards, Andew Werkheiser, and Zane Hayspell. The Illick's Mill Project's first environmental team was started this year, and it was organized by Brian Fritz and Joelle Nash. The class of 2004-2005 received a 50 thousand dollar grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Save Our Local Environment (S.O.L.E.) Inc. also granted the Project 26 thousand dollars to restore the Mill, which along with a 5 thousand dollar grant from the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, helped this class reach new fund-raising records. Most appreciated were the efforts of Hannah Finelli who set this class's fund raising records by writing numerous smaller grants as well as successfully raising 10 thousand dollars through the department of Community and Economic Development. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the 2004-2005 school year was an effort that finally reached fruition after four years of work. In April of 2004, Illick's Mill was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The Illick's Mill class of 2004-2005 is as of date, the only high school class in history to achieve this accomplishment. The Project also earned the National Energy Foundation’s “Igniting Creative Energy” Award along with a History Channel nomination for their annual "Save Our History" award.

The Illick’s Mill class of 2005-2006 continued to conduct water tests at Monocacy Creek. They also participated in a two-day streambank restoration project. In September, the Illick's Mill students were invited to the Sustainable Energy Fair in Kempton, Pennsylvania to be presenters. They taught children the importance of sustainable energy and recycling. In October, students attended the Pennsylvania Planning Association Conference. Students toured the town of Bethlehem with professional planners from around the country and gave input on how to make the city of Bethlehem a better, cleaner place. Also held in October, was our annual Gala event. It went great; guests toured the Mill and raised 5 thousand dollars. In December, the class held the first annual Winter Solstice. At the event they had environmental craft stations where children made nature crafts and bird treats. There was also live music and the announcement of a 70 thousand dollar grant which Monocacy Creek Watershed Association and the Illick's Mill Partnership recieved from the Growing Greener Fund. The Winter Solstice raised 2 thousand dollars and brought in many new members. Installation of insulation in the roof was completed. They began repointing the exterior stone, as well as replastering and painting the exterior walls. In February of 2006, the Illick's Mill Project was awarded 10 thousand dollars from The History Channel's "Save Our History" Grant. Also, Hannae Pavlick received a grant from Save Our Local Environment. The grant was for 32,300 dollars. RiverFusion was also a great success, bringing in 12 thousand dollars. In its entirety, this class raised a total of 141 thousand dollars.

The Illick's Mill class of 2006-2007 completed insulating the Mill with environmentally friendly insulation, finished plastering and painting the inside of the Community Room, created a new website, wrote grants, organized and held events, and they took many wonderful photographs to document the Illick's Mill Project's accomplishments. Environmental work was increased that year with regular water testing and vernal pool research. Vo-tech students also framed and dry-walled all of the rooms and closets inside the Mill. The class of 2006-2007 raise the funds to purchase 19 new windows and the Vo-tech students installed them. The class also created murals and completed significant construction work inside the Classroom Center.

The Illick’s Mill class of 2007-2008 was most anticipated because its extraneous efforts will have finally paid off. The Illick’s Mill will be open to the public by January 2009. The goal for this class was to raise the final $135,000 needed to finish the last remaining projects. The worked to replace the windows of the mill, as well as the stage. The Stream Science Center located in the bottom floor of the mill is underway, and Eastern Mountain Sports has graciously donated desks that we will recycle for our classrooms. As usual, writing grants was a major part of the effort to help us reach our goal of 1.7 million dollars total for the mill’s restoration; 925,000 dollars has been raised since our fund raising efforts began in 2001. Our funding has been provided by many well known companies and foundations, some of which include SOLE, Mack Trucks, Nestle, BonTon, PPL Incorporated, the Century Fund, Dorothy & Dexter Baker Foundation, Just Born Inc., Embassy Bank, R.K. Laros Foundation, CMX Family Foundation, and MTV. In addition, the environmental team worked with a Lehigh University student to test macro invertebrates. Thank you to this year's class we wrote 99 grants in total, which accumulates to the most grants written for all the years the Illick's Mill Project has been in existance!

From the perspective of these writers (Illick's Mill students Adam Poole, Steph Jeppesen, Kristen Michaylira, Pete Korpics, Brian Schachter, and Greg Laudenslager), the Illick's Mill Project is one of the greatest programs to come out of a high school. It gives students experiences and skills that no one could experience from the inside of a standard classroom. These students are motivated and determined to better their community and to be part of something that is larger than themselves. Surely, none of the students who were accepted into the Illick's Mill Project will easily be forgotten, nor will they forget the Mill and the important work that they acomplished. The resurrection of Illick's Mill will unfold and become an outstanding environmental education center in the heart of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.