By KELLY WILSON
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
Ceremonial shovels will turn dirt Monday morning at the site of the future Quincy Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, a visible sign the center is progressing from a dream to a reality.
The groundbreaking ceremony is set for 9 a.m. on Vermont Street, between Fourth and Fifth streets. The public is invited.
"A lot of work and planning have gone into getting us to this very moment. We're excited we finally reached this milestone," said Patty Douglas, Kroc project facilitator. "It's going to be real before you know it."
Construction is expected to take about 18 months.
The $24.5 million, 90,000-square-foot facility will be built on the 3.5-acre site bordered by Fourth and Fifth, and Broadway and Hampshire streets. It will house a 500-seat worship center, community room, cafe, party rooms, fitness center, child watch area, outdoor play area, aquatics center, a state-of-the-art game room, walking/running track, gym and climbing wall.
"It's something that's going to be new and different and spectacular for our whole community. ... It's going to be beautiful," Douglas said.
The Quincy Salvation Army learned in November 2006 that it was chosen as a site for a Kroc Center, made possible through a generous bequest left by Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, to the Salvation Army.
Quincy's center will be one of about 30 nationwide and one of six in the Salvation Army's Central Territory, which covers 11 Midwestern states. It is the third in the Central Territory to hold a groundbreaking, said Col. Carol Seiler, territorial Kroc Center project secretary.
The Kroc estate trust document states that the facility must be of high quality and built with excellence in mind. It must also be a structure that glorifies God and can be used by the entire community.
"We see the Kroc Center as a place where people of all walks of life and ages can come to find hope, and hopefully at some point to find Christ, as well," Douglas said.
Programs will fall into five categories: evangelism and discipleship, family enrichment, physical fitness and recreation, performing and fine arts, and education and academic achievement.
The programs will be the "heart and soul of the building," said Gerry Kettler, chairman of the Quincy Salvation Army advisory board. "We don't just want a beautiful shell."
The groundbreaking will be "truly a community celebration" and the center will be a "welcoming, accessible, state-of-the-art community center," Kettler said. "The faith component will be pervasive throughout the building."
He looks forward to the center's opening, when he can walk through the facility and see people from diverse backgrounds participating in a variety of activities -- families having fun in the indoor water park, people participating in Bible study in one of the community rooms, and others working out in the fitness area.
"There will be activities for everyone to participate in," Douglas said. "All of the programs that are provided in the Kroc Center will be accessible to everyone."
Memberships will be sold, but a sliding fee scale will be used and scholarships will be available.
Douglas said countless people have contributed to the Kroc project.
"We appreciate everyone who has helped and given input and ideas," she said.
"We're open to community input still as we continue to refine our process," Kettler said. "We want to answer the needs in this community."
Dignitaries participating in the groundbreaking ceremony will be Col. Carol Seiler; Col. Paul Seiler, territorial chief secretary; Maj. Lonneal Richardson and Maj. Patty Richardson, Midland Divisional leaders; and Quincy Mayor John Spring.
-- kwilson@whig.com/221-3391
On the Web: www.salvationarmyquincy.org
