The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The Adaptive Sports Center (ASC) has completed its $14 million fundraising campaign for the Kelsey Wright Building.
The ASC raised the final dollars thanks to a $350,000 match issued by Dorothy and Norman Eastwood and Glena and Jim Miller last month. The Eastwoods and Millers agreed to match dollar for dollar all donations and pledges made to the campaign through January 31.
The new home of the Adaptive Sports Center is on budget and on schedule to open its doors this spring. Construction of the four-story, 25,000-square-foot facility is being funded entirely with donations and grants.
“We are humbled by this milestone,” says ASC executive director Christopher Hensley. “Thanks to hundreds of individual donors, foundations and organizations, we will be able to open the doors to our future home debt-free. We are deeply appreciative of all of our donors, many of whom have given multiple times over these past three years. The Kelsey Wright Building ensures we will be able to impact countless more people with disabilities for many decades to come.”
The Adaptive Sports Center has grown dramatically and leased space in several locations over the past 31 years. It provides more than 6,000 activities annually to people with disabilities from around the world. In recent years, the ASC has had to turn away groups and individuals because it lacked the space to serve them.
The Kelsey Wright Building will double the space the ASC currently has to run programs and house participants, and is ideally situated for winter and summer offerings with ski-in/ski-out access, an adaptive climbing wall, a floor dedicated to housing participants, and more.
“It is so exciting to see this dream become a reality and allow the Adaptive Sports Center the opportunity to better serve more people with disabilities in the future. For me it has been an incredible honor to chair our campaign and I am thrilled to be able to share the facility with all who supported us in this effort and with our local community,” says Eileen DuPre, campaign chair and ASC vice president.
The new facility is named in memory of Kelsey Wright, one of the Adaptive Sports Center’s first and longest-attending participants. Kelsey broke a lot of stereotypes about people with disabilities. She loved to show the world that her disability didn’t define her. The Kelsey Wright Building will embody Kelsey’s spirit of perseverance and courage and help people reach their full potential for decades to come.
The $14 million campaign is the turnkey cost of the land acquisition, demolition of the Outpost Building, design and engineering, construction, fixtures, furniture and equipment in the new building. To save on costs, the ASC plans to move much of its existing furnishings and equipment from the Treasury Center to the Kelsey Wright Building. The ASC is still accepting donations for the building to address building transition expenses as well as purchasing new and upgrading outdated fixtures, furniture, and equipment moved from the old building.
Chris Hensley says, “Any donations received to the campaign beyond the $14,000,000 will still be used for the building. We currently intend to move over some equipment and furnishings that have two to three years of life remaining. If we are able to upgrade some of that now, it will save us the expense later. Additionally, despite the best planning there remain unknowns and we want to be as prepared as possible to address them.”
The Kelsey Wright Building is scheduled to open its doors to the public at a grand opening celebration July 2, 2019 from 4 to 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend and light snacks and beverages will be provided along with tours of the building.
