CAMPAIGN EARNS BOOST: SALVATION ARMY WILL RECEIVE $200,000 GRANT

The Cape Girardeau Salvation Army has received a $200,000 challenge grant toward its goal of raising $1 million for construction of a new building.

Capital campaign chairmen Rock and Judy Wilferth, and Capt. Elmer Trapp with the Salvation Army, announced the grant Wednesday at a meeting of those working to raise money.

The grant challenges the local Salvation Army to raise $800,000. If they hit that goal, the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation will contribute $200,000.

The Army must raise $800,000 by Dec. 31. It has already raised about $660,000 and needs another $140,000 to make that goal.

Rock Wilferth said: "This is certainly fantastic news for the campaign. It goes a long way toward meeting our goal of $1 million."

According to John Hixon, a consultant helping the Salvation Army with its campaign, the Mabee Foundation was created by the Mabee family of Oklahoma. The family amassed a fortune in the oil business, Hixon said. The foundation provides grants to community projects like this one.

Wilferth said that in addition to the challenge grant, the capital campaign has been successful in raising other donations.

For example, the Kiwanis Club recently made its first $20,000 donation toward a five-year pledge of $100,000 for the project.

"We are so excited about what has happened in the last few weeks," he said. "We are not home yet, but we are getting very near. We can see the finish line, so we don't want to let up at this time."

The Salvation Army here has provided services to people in Southeast Missouri since 1915 and is now the largest non-governmental provider of human services in Cape Girardeau county, said Trapp.

"In all that time, the Salvation Army has always been located in donated buildings which have always been inadequate for the growing role of its programs," he said.

The Army is in the midst of one of the largest fundraising drives for a social services agency in the community.

Plans call for a new 16,725-square-foot building, which will be constructed near the site of the current Salvation Army building, which will be demolished once the new facility is built.

The planned facility consists of a large, multipurpose room, kitchen, nursery, chapel, library, classroom, fellowship room and administrative offices. It will be called the Salvation Army Worship and Community Center.