FUND DRIVE FOR SENIOR CENTER SOON TO HIT HIGH GEAR

QUILT-MAKER: Hazel Kester works on a quilt at the Nutrition Center. Kester visits the center three to four times per week to work on quilts. She also volunteers in the kitchen there on Mondays. She has been going to the center since 1983.

A fund-raising campaign for the construction of a senior citizens nutrition center in Cape Girardeau will move into high gear after the first of the year.

"I hope by this time next year we can have that new building started or at least be a whole lot closer," Jo Nell Lingo, nutrition center administrator, said Tuesday.

Lingo explained that the fund drive for the new building, which would be the first permanent home for the senior citizens center in Cape Girardeau, has been on hold since July because the nutrition center is a United Way Agency.

During the fall while the United Way conducts its drive, agencies that are supported by the drive agree not to raise funds for their organizations. The nutrition center receives $9,000 from the United Way.

Lingo said the center has had some small in-house fundraisers that have brought in a few hundred dollars at a time, but the senior citizens group has maintained a low profile.

The board of directors, led by board Chairman Russell Faust, will coordinate the fund-raising campaign.

"It won't be long before we will shift into high gear and see what we can get done," said Lingo. She noted that the organization still has a year remaining in its participation in the Neighborhood Assistance Program, which provides state tax incentives to entice large contributions.

The board is hoping that program will be a good tool for raising funds.

Last summer, the center purchased a tract of land in the 800 block of North Clark Street, which is situated in the area where New Madrid and Dunklin streets intersect with Clark. The lot cost about $50,000 and there is a balance of around $10,000 to be paid off yet, according to Lingo.

"We want to pay off the lot and then get started on the building," she said. David Albertson, an architect, has been hired to do some design work on the new facility. The building will include a large dining room, kitchen, rooms for crafts and television, and other activities.

Lingo pointed out that the back side of the lot is in a flood plain. She said they hope to develop that with a park-like setting that can be enjoyed by senior citizens but would not be damaged by high water.

At this point, there are no firm cost figures on the building. But Lingo said that a recently opened center in Fredericktown cost $300,000. "I'm sure it will be that or more," she remarked.

Lingo said eventually a decision will likely be made to construct the building, even if all funds have not been raised. Currently, the nutrition center is housed in the Cape Civic Center on Broadway. The senior citizens organization pays $850 a month in rent and a share of utility costs to the Cape Civic Center.

"That rent could go a long way toward making payments on a building," said Lingo.

In Fredericktown, Lingo said, civic organizations and churches worked together to help with the fund-raising effort. A center in Jackson was paid for with the aid of a low-interest loan from the city of Jackson.

"I'm sure we'll have to work like dogs for several years to get it paid for, but if other towns can do it, we can too," declared Lingo.

"If everybody would pull together and do what we need to do, I think we can raise the money. The meal that is provided at the nutrition center is not the most important thing; the most important thing is the fellowship, the interaction between the people."

Senior citizens who eat at the center pay for their meals through donations. Although efforts have been made in recent years to expand the activities and opportunities for fellowship, Lingo said a permanent building is needed to really develop a strong program.

The first meals were served at the nutrition center on April 15, 1974, when the center was situated at the old Sunny Hill Top of the Hill Restaurant. Later, the center was moved to Middle Street near City Hall, and in 1978 it moved to a building in the Cape County North Park.

That building was in bad condition and razed by the county shortly after the center was moved to the Civic Center's building in November of 1986.

"We have never had a permanent home and we really need a place to get some activities going to benefit all seniors," observed Lingo.