Since a raucous borough council meeting two months ago, the grass roots effort to purchase the Mrs. C.M. Schwab School in Weatherly has been taking place largely behind closed doors.

But the residents organizing the fight say that they have been working hard since that time, and are ready to discuss their plans with the public."There's been in a lot of work to get this thing done," Charlie Palermo says. "time consuming things that have sort of kept us behind closed doors."Palermo, a 1978 Weatherly graduate who was elected to head the preservation effort, said that the group's mission is to raise the money for the building, to acquire it, then hand it over to the borough.He updated borough council on the process at their meeting Tuesday night.So far, they have been working on the marketing for their fundraising campaign.That includes sending out more than 1,000 letters with the borough's utility bills, and contacting every member of the Weatherly High School Alumni Association.They also made up T-shirts with a picture of the school that say SOS (save our school), and #thisplacematters.Palermo said that the pledges have been coming in, but he did not want to share how much has been raised for fear of tipping their hand to rival bidders."There is a real love for this, there is a real passion for this, I have no doubt. We are well into the thousands of dollars in both donations and pledges," he said."I think we're taking advantage of everything we can and that will continue."Members of the group had a chance to tour the original, circa-1918 portion of the building last week.Palermo said they weren't granted access to a wing of the building which was added in the 1930s, but said that they got a good appraisal of what has been preserved and what needs to be restored in the school.He assured council that the group won't be making an offer to acquire the school without first sharing their plans with residents."There is an anxiousness to make them an offer based on some things that have been said by both the current owner and the Realtor. But the public meeting is necessary of course," he said.Councilman Joseph Cyburt said the more people included on the project, the more successful it will bePalermo also thanked borough council for overcoming its hesitations about the project and voting to accept the building if the group is able to raise the money.It took two votes for council to approve it when the issue came up at a packed public meeting in May. Palermo said that the group intends to live up to their side of the deal."And we thank you for allowing us to do this, because we needed you to do this, and we're going to do it. There's no doubt that this is happening. So get ready to handed over a deed to the building," he said.