Board Chairman Walker Morris announced that Pinehurst Inc. has donated the lead gift of $500,000. Pat Corso, president and chief operating officer of Pinehurst, is chairman of capital campaign. A kick-off luncheon for the campaign was held Monday at the Carolina hotel
The Boys & Girls Club has partnerships with the Moore County Schools, which buses Southern Pines students to the club’s makeshift quarters on South Bennett Street in Southern Pines for an after-school program. The Moore County Literacy Council provides volunteers to help tutor children.
“Open your hearts and your wallet to this important cause,” said John Dempsey, president of Sandhills Community College, who is a member of the board for the Boys & Girls Club.
The fund-raising drive will provide money for a new computer center, and equipping and furnishing the old Southern Pines fire station. The town is renovating the fire station at a cost of almost $2 million to house programs for the Boys & Girls Club and the town Parks and Recreation Depar-tment.
The old fire station will have a gymnasium, athletic play area, crafts area, study areas and offices that will give the club 19,000 square feet of space, compared to 3,600 square feet at the facility on South Bennett Street.
Dempsey invited Pinehurst, Aberdeen and Pinebluff to contribute to the campaign since youths from those towns participate in Boys and Girls Club programs.
The club serves more than 500 boys and girls from Southern Pines and the immediate area. Additional funding will allow the club to establish satellite programs in other parts of the county. The club’s goal is to provide start-up assistance to three or four units within the next five years.
Another $1 million from the campaign will be used to create an endowment fund to underwrite the costs of operating the Boys & Girls Club. The return could generate an annual return of $50,000, which would fund 20 percent of the annual operating budget.
