Heritage Fund : The Community Foundation of Bartholomew County

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Time to help city rebuild community's living room

 The Republic May 14, 2008

Mickey Kim is chairman of the Development Committee of Heritage Fund -the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

I am very pleased to announce the kickoff of A Cause in Common, a true communitywide effort to raise funds for the redevelopment of The Commons. While there have been many tremendously important projects completed or in process, I believe this project will have the broadest and longest lasting impact of any civic project since I moved here in 1986.
    Like most current and past residents, I have many fond memories of times spent with family and friends at The Commons. As The Republic stated, The Commons truly is the community’s living room. Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County is leading the fundraising effort.
    Our goal is to raise $3 million from a broad range of donors—hopefully everyone whose life was touched in one way or another by good times spent at The Commons.
    The total cost of the redevelopment project is estimated at $18 million with a target completion date of May 2010. The city of Columbus has pledged $6 million. The Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation, the Cummins Foundation and Heritage Fund have each pledged $3 million, or a total of $9 million.
    Heritage Fund has committed to raise the fi nal $3 million from the community. When combined with the support of the three foundations above, every $1 contributed by the community will have $4 of impact on the project.
    The great news is Jim Henderson and his leadership committee of John Dorenbusch, Dick Johnson and Brooke Tuttle have been meeting with our community’s “traditional” civic donors and the response has been terrifi c. Henderson’s committee has given us a strong headstart, but we won’t reach our goal without the broad-based commitment we are seeking.
Longtime planning
    Heritage Fund’s Development Committee has been busy laying the groundwork and planning for an exciting and action-packed campaign, one of the highlights being a fall “CommonsFest,” featuring 40 Years of College, frequent performers at The Commons.
    The committee has divided the community into target groups: youth, small business, clubs and organizations, rural/ agricultural, medical and professional advisors. Visit Heritage Fund’s Web site at heritagefundbc.org for more information and online giving capability.
    I want to thank Lisa Shafran, vice president of development and my committee for their hard work to this point and the heavy lifting yet to come. These dedicated committee members are: Dan Arnholt, Dave Barker, Linda Behrman, Julie Bergman, Jeff Brown, Tim Cooney, Tony Gambaiani, Jim Henderson, Bill Lentz, John Revell, Sherry Stark, Rich Stenner, Sue Tannenbaum, Rebekah Walsh and Jeff Washburn. We also have been gratifi ed by the enthusiasm and support expressed by a wide range of community volunteers.
    I also want to thank The Republic for their invaluable support of the redevelopment project itself and A Cause in Common. Check out The Republic’s Web site at therepublic.com for links to a veritable treasure trove of articles about the history and redevelopment of The Commons.
    This project will have a huge positive impact on our community for the next 10 to 20 to 30 years and beyond. Wouldn’t it be great if we can all look back then and proudly tell our kids or grandkids how the community came together way back in 2008 and built a great new gathering place — a new living room?
    This is a very exciting and important time for Columbus and Bartholomew County. These next couple years are going to be a magical ride, and I hope you’ll join us in seizing this moment in our history with A Cause in Common.