The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
After years of planning and raising ninety percent of the funds needed to build a new home for the Adaptive Sports Center, construction is under way on the Kelsey Wright Building. Crews from Lacy Construction demolished the Outpost Building in the Crested Butte Mountain Resort base area on Wednesday, April 25 and FCI Constructors is preparing to begin construction on the new 25,000-square-foot facility. The ASC has raised $12.4 million so far.
“We still have to raise more than a million dollars, but this is a very exciting moment for the Adaptive Sports Center community,” says ASC executive director Christopher Hensley. “We are grateful to the more than 200 people and organizations that have donated to this project so far. The Kelsey Wright Building will significantly improve the experience for our participants, allow us to serve more people, and secure our future for decades to come.”
The ASC’s board of directors approved the beginning of construction after the organization successfully met a $1 million challenge and realized a $2 million grant from the town of Mt. Crested Butte Downtown Development Authority.
“We have successfully met every fundraising deadline we have set for ourselves over the past three years,” says ASC building campaign chair Eileen DuPre. “We still need to raise quite a bit more, but construction is under way and we are on schedule to open our doors in 2019.”
Naming opportunities are still available for major donors and every donation, no matter the size, will be permanently recognized in the new building.
The Adaptive Sports Center has grown dramatically and leased space in several locations over the past 31 years. It now provides more than 6,000 activities annually to people with disabilities from around the world. In recent years, the ASC had to turn away groups of participants because it lacked the space to serve them. The Kelsey Wright Building will double the square footage 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.
To learn more about the Kelsey Wright Building project or to donate, visit http://www.adaptivesports.org/KWB.
