When the late Toby Pennels became president of the Windham Veterans Association, the Casco-based financial adviser set out to resurrect the group’s flagging finances. Key to the effort was Pennels’ plan to pave the Windham Veterans Center’s bumpy dirt access road and parking lot behind the Windham Mall.

Once the road and parking lot were paved, Pennels figured, the center would see a spike in income from hall rentals. Upon assuming the association presidency in summer 2012, Pennels established a “paving” account.

The account had accrued about $4,000 by September 2014, when Pennels died as a result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash in Rangeley.

On Monday, the association kicked off “Toby’s Dream,” a fundraiser at the center in Pennels’ honor. The goal is to grow the paving account to $50,000 by Memorial Day, and pave the access road and parking lot. The association has also obtained town approval to rename the access road the Toby Pennels Veterans Memorial Drive.

About 40 people attended the event, which was pioneered by Don Swander, the association’s president from 2005-2012. According to Swander, nine donors contributed $6,620 in total at the fundraiser, swelling the association’s paving account to $10,788.

Two weeks before Pennels’ motorcycle accident, Swander and Pennels stood at the entrance to the access road – at the rear of the Windham Mall parking lot – and debated whether to pave the access road and the parking lot, or take one at a time, Swander recalled Monday.

“Toby was adamant that we must do them at the same time,” Swander said. “He assured me that his business plan would make the veterans center self-sufficient. He said, ‘We need to pave right to here’ – and there was no question in my mind that that’s what was going to happen. He looked at me with that great Toby smirky smile that he got sometimes and said firmly, ‘Don, if we pave it, they will come.’

“And I tell you, Kevin Costner could not have said it any better,” Swander added.

According to Swander, the paving project will allow the association to make significant improvements and upgrades to the center’s building and grounds. These improvements, along with the paving, will significantly increase rental income, Swander said, thereby making the center “financially self-sustaining.”

“That was his goal,” Swander said. “The rentals need to pay the bills.”

Pennels’ mother, Deb, daughter, Taylor, and wife, Brenda, also attended the fundraiser.

“Toby did talk about this all the time,” Brenda Pennels said. “He would come back from an event here at the veterans center and just say, ‘Boy, it would just be so much better and so much nicer if we could pave that driveway.’ He used to feel bad for people that were having showers and weddings and different events here if it was raining because he knew what that would mean for the driveway and for the parking lot. I think he was sure that it would happen, just wasn’t really sure how we were going to make that happen.”

Taylor Pennels also spoke, emphasizing her father’s emotional connection to the center.

“Every time I’m in this building I feel my dad,” she said. “This was a really special place to him. I know that he loved our community and he really saw this as a place where we could all be together.”

Midway through the fundraiser, Dana Reed, the former senior minister at North Windham Union Church and a military veteran, blessed the proceedings.

“We have gathered to fulfill a vision given us by Stuart ‘Toby’ Pennels to become more to us and to our communities than we could imagine,” Reed said. “As Toby inspired us we seek your holy inspiration to complete a project that will call from us our highest dedication and noblest efforts. Grant unto your humble servants the strength and perseverance to pave our way – no pun intended – to a successful completion of this roadway and parking lot. Continue in us the dream Toby had for this veterans center.”

Taylor and Brenda Pennels, the late Toby Pennels’ daughter and wife, stand at the entrance of the access road to the Windham Veterans Center. On Jan. 5, the Windham Veterans Association kicked off a fundraiser called “Toby’s Dream” in Pennels’ honor at the center. The goal: Raise $50,000 by Memorial Day, and pave the bumpy dirt access road and parking lot at the center. The association has also obtained town approval to rename the access road, Toby Pennels Veterans Memorial Drive. Staff photo by Ezra SilkDon Swander, former Windham Veterans Association president, left, and Willie Goodman, commander of the VFW Post 10643, celebrate the memory of Toby Pennels at a Jan. 5 fundraiser at the Windham Veterans Center.Staff photo by Ezra Silk