$1 million gift puts center on target

Supporters have the money they need to break ground next month on the $70 million Salvation Army Kroc Community Center in Coeur d’Alene, after the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation announced Saturday it will donate $1 million to meet a final fundraising goal.

The announcement comes just three weeks before a deadline to raise $6 million in order to start building the community center this year.

“This gift came at the perfect time,” said Salvation Army Major John Chamness, director of the project.

“I knew we had a big challenge, but that challenge was way more of an opportunity,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem.

Joe and Kathryn Albertson, who met at college in Idaho, built the grocery store chain that bears their family name. They established the Albertson Foundation in 1966. According to its Web site, the foundation is focused on being a catalyst for positive educational change, reform and improvement in Idaho.

Fundraising has been going on in earnest for the past year.

“I knew the community would do it. It (the center) was just too big of a gift to give up,” said Bloem.

The center will be built at the corner of Ramsey and Golf Course roads. It will include community meeting space, swimming pools, basketball courts, a performing arts center and playground. It’s one of six to be built in The Salvation Army’s western region, and among 32 across the country.

“It’s lots more than bricks and mortar,” said Chamness. “We see it impacting the lives of kids and families and seniors in such a positive way.”

The majority of the money for the project comes from the Kroc Foundation, created by McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc, which donated $32 million toward construction and another $32 million toward an endowment fund to pay for 40 percent of the center’s operating expenses.

Other center expenses will be paid with membership dues and rental fees.

Fundraising continues, said campaign co-chairman Jack Riggs, who explained that a cushion is needed in case some pledges fall through.

“We expect more pledges. Any additional money will go to scholarships for people who need them,” he said.

Monthly membership dues are expected to be $6.25 per child or $52 for a family of four, with scholarships going to lower-income households.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for June 28, with an opening date expected in December 2008.