By: Ryan Duey
Photos Courtesy of Grow Clay County
On May 21st, Grow Clay County announced they received a $500,000 Goldstein Foundation Challenge Grant to support the building and expansion of the Clay Center Multi-Generational Life Center.
Natalie Muruato, Grow Clay County Director, said they hope to start construction on the Life Center around August 1st. This generous Grant could greatly help in building the best facility possible for the community.
“We are trying to get the shell of the entire building finished. We’ve been fundraising now for about a year, and we had an original amount of $4 million to raise.
“We have done pretty well with adding this new grant from the Goldstein Foundation for our community, and we will continue to fundraise and apply for grants to try to find more money so that we can have the best possible facility.”
The caveat to this Challenge Grant is that it is a matching challenge grant. With this, community support is needed more than ever to take full advantage of this opportunity by the anticipated construction date. Muruato said they will continue to fundraise.
“As a request from the Goldstein Foundation and to honor their donation, we’re working to raise as much funding as possible before that August 1st date.”
“While we’ll continue those fundraising efforts throughout the year, we really need the community’s support right now.”
“Our goal is to keep this as a project that doesn’t involve additional tax dollars, so we can have a facility that will benefit all generations for many years to come.”
The Goldstein Foundation Challenge Grant brings the total amount raised to $5.5 million. This funding is enough to cover the required components to start the build, but does not include both gymnasiums and walking tracks.
With only a couple months until the anticipated building date it is a crucial time for the community to support this initiative any way they can, whether through individual donations, or participating in the donor wall campaign.
Donations can be made online at: https://www.claycentercif.org/make-adonation.cfm?fid=1644#top-of-form.
More information on the Life Center can be found on the Grow Clay County website.
