On Monday the Community Foundation of Elkhart County announced it had won a $2 million Lilly Endowment grant to build a new expanded $11.5 million Tolson Center for Community Excellence next year. Tribune Photo/SANTIAGO FLORES
Two years after the Elkhart City Council voted to close the Tolson Community & Youth Center, a $2 million Lilly Endowment grant will bring its next incarnation closer to reality.
The Community Foundation of Elkhart County announced Monday it had won the grant, bringing plans for the new Tolson Center for Community Excellence within $800,000 of its estimated $11.5 million cost. Under new Democratic Mayor Rod Roberson and a new Democratic council majority that took office in January, after Roberson campaigned on a pledge to rebuild the center, the city has committed $5 million, while the Community Foundation will give another $2 million and six private donors have offered a combined $1.7 million — including $400,000 from Plumrose USA, a Chicago-based meat processor with a bacon plant in Elkhart County.
The grant means project organizers can start designing and preparing the new center, which will be added on to the existing building at 1320 Benham Ave. The city reopened the site last year on the city’s racially diverse south side.
“This certainly accelerates and gives confidence now to the success of the vision that’s been developed at the community level,” said Pete McCown, the foundation’s executive director. “They can now budget and plan and make commitments with confidence.”
McCown said organizers hope to launch a grassroots fund-raising campaign next month for the remaining $800,000, seeking smaller amounts from a larger number of donors than the philanthropic gifts secured so far.
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