Special Olympics Missouri hopes a partnership with the Centene Charitable Foundation will take fundraising for its new Training for Life Campus to the finish line.
The Centene Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of St. Louis-based health care services firm Centene, has pledged to match as much as $700,000 in donations to SOMO from Oct. 10 to Dec. 15.
With construction progressing on the new center, the group now needs less than $1.3 million to complete the project. SOMO officials said the foundation's pledge to match the funds will be part of an end-of-the-year push to finish fundraising for the project.
Construction on the $18.5 million Training for Life campus started in late July. SOMO hopes the project will teach athletes from around the Midwest life lessons and skills they can use in the workforce.
Centene kick-started fundraising for the campus in September 2011 with a pledge of $1 million.
"They wanted to give us something to get us over the finish line," said Gary Wilbers, capital campaign chairman for the campus.
Centene CEO and President Michael Neidorff said in 2011 the company was proud to support the project.
"At Centene, we recognized the need to step up and provide significant support, and I highly encourage and challenge the community to invest in this once-in-a-lifetime project that will take health, wellness and fitness opportunities for these children and adults to a level never before experienced," Neidorff said at the time, according to SOMO's website.
Fundraising efforts this year have gone swiftly. In May, just $16 million had been raised. By August, that figure had reached $17 million, putting the organization just $1.5 million from its goal. Wilbers said now just less than $1.3 million remains to be raised.
Money collected in this final phase of fundraising will be used to finish projects in the back of the building including horseshoe pits, bocce courts, a shot put area, a track, a torch run plaza and other amenities. To help meet its goal, the organization launched the Fan the Flame fundraising campaign in late August.
In the project's long history before construction started, SOMO solicited donations mostly from large donors. The Missouri Council of the Knights of Columbus, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Law Enforcement Torch Run are among other groups that pledged at least $1 million. Other anonymous donors have made donations of $500,000 and $250,000, and Learfield Communications gave $500,000 to the project.
Fan the Flame was designed to reach people willing to give smaller sums by asking them to give $50 then encourage 10 friends to give $50.
Wilbers said the campaign went so well SOMO decided to extend it through at least Dec. 15.
When finished, the 34,000-square-foot main building will include a 16,000-square-foot gym for basketball and volleyball, as well as fitness rooms, a training facility, office space, a small clinic and multipurpose meeting rooms. Around the building will sit outdoor recreational fields providing space for soccer, a four-lane track with a 100-meter straight-away, long jump and shot put areas, golf skills space, horseshoe pits, tennis area, softball fields, bocce courts and a torch run plaza.
The organization estimated about 165,000 people in the state qualify for Special Olympics Missouri.
Construction is progressing at the former quarry on Christy Drive where the campus is being built. The foundation for the main building is laid, and walls are being erected. Electricity and water services are now on the site.
Wilbers said construction is on schedule and SOMO still expects the facility to open next fall.
"We're hoping for a mild winter," Wilbers said. "That will help us, but it's in God's hands."