Vision Iowa awards $800,000 to Parkside Activities Center, asks all fund raising be done in March

When Vision Iowa awarded Wellman’s Parkside Activities Center an $800,000 grant November 14, it raised the total funding for the approximate $5.9 million project to $5,165,836. The grant is contingent upon all fundraising being completed in the next 120 days (mid-March).
“We are grateful to the Vision Iowa Board for seeing all the positives Wellman has to offer and were thrilled when they told us they firmly believe our city is taking a huge step in the right direction,” said Mayor Ryan Miller, a long-time supporter of the project.
With more than $5.1 million raised, organizers said additional local support must reach $480,000 to $730,000, depending on some items being negotiated. That figure is within what was expected from the start if Vision Iowa came through.
Miller, Allen Leichty and Tom Buckwalter met with the Vision Iowa Board last week in Des Moines.
Leichty provided a breakdown of the funds raised for the daycare and community activities center that shows $3,268,375 from grants and awards, $1,030,000 from local and county governmental entities and $867,461 from private donations and pledges.
“That means that more than 62 percent of what has been raised is coming from sources outside our community,” Leichty noted. He added that 232 households are included in the private donations side, equal to slightly more than half the number of households within the Wellman city limits.
“It does not mean that half the households in Wellman have pledged, though., Many of those existing pledges are from rural Wellman homes and homes in the surrounding communites,” he explained.
The project’s steering committee now will work to complete the local fundraising requirement of the project, he indicated. All involved in the project have said they believe the amount needs is “very attainable.”

“Thanks to this grant and some very generous local donations, the Parkside Activities Center received $985,000 in just under 24 hours,” said Leichty.

“We have to believe it is going to happen now.”
“We have to believe that even those who have been skeptical of this project for some time would not want to give up over $3 million being handed to this community,” added Buckwalter.
He added how the Vision Iowa process helped him focus on “what a great community Wellman is. When you compa-re what has been done on this project to some of those presented by other communities, many with much larger populations, what the people of Wellman have done and continue to do is nothing less than amazing. I wish everyone could have gone through this process. It’s no wonder that board had such high praise for our city.”
For the record, the project received $2 million from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, $30,000 from the Washington County Board of Supervisors, $1 million from the City of Wellman, $867,461 in private donations, and $25,000 from the Mid-Prairie School District as a guaranteed $5,000 a year rental for five years.
There also is a possibility of some smaller grants, totaling $125,000.
To donate
Project organizers urge anyone who wants to be part of keeping the project and funding in the community to call and pledge support. Pledges and donations may be made by contacting Buckwalter or Leichty. Donations also may be arranged at either Hills Bank and Trust or Federation Bank in Wellman.
Although what is now the Parkside Activities Center dates to slightly more than five years ago, the concept began about 20 years ago.