A rendering of the Martens Center wing that is sponsored by Champaign Rotary.
L-R-Champaign Park District Director Joe DeLuce, Champaign Rotary president Janet Ellis-Nelson and Champaign Rotary Foundation President Chris Moore during a press conference about Champaign Rotary's gift to the Martens project at Round Barn Center in Champaign on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Don Moyer Boys & Girls club director Sam Banks during a press conference about Champaign Rotary's gift to the Martens project at Round Barn Center in Champaign on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Steve Carter speaks during a press conference Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at Round Barn Center about Champaign Rotary’s $100,000 gift to the Champaign Park District's Martens Center project.
CHAMPAIGN — The Rotary Club of Champaign and its foundation donated $100,000 Tuesday to the $12 million Martens Center being built by the Champaign Park District on the city’s north side.
The gift will help the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club expand into a wing of the building sponsored by the Rotary club.
Past Rotary club President Steve Carter and the late Tom Costello led the effort to make the donation.
“As we learned more about the Martens Center, we just thought it was a terrific project,” Carter said. “This is really a transformative project.”
Sam Banks, the president and CEO of the local Boys & Girls Club, said the gift will allow the Martens Center to have a dedicated space for elementary school kids.
The gift will provide for “an age-appropriate space for them (and) age-appropriate design for the various different classrooms,” Banks said.
It will also allow the Boys & Girls club to serve more kids.
“We probably serve about 140 kids a day that are at the elementary levels.,” Banks said. “The move to the Martens Center will allow us serve more than 200 kids.”
That will in turn allow the Boys & Girls Club to focus its Park Street location on middle and high school students.
“it’s an exciting opportunity for the Boys & Girls club really to position itself for the next 50 years of service,” Banks said.
Joe DeLuce, the executive director of the Champaign Park District, said the Martens Center is in its design and development stage.
“Hopefully this product is going to go out to bid this fall, start construction in the spring of 2021 and be completed in the spring of 2022,” he said.
The center will also house Head Start, the early childhood education program, DeLuce said.
“It’s gonna be packed,” he said. “It’s going to be a really exciting opportunity for people in that community to really change their lives.”
The Martens Center will be located on Market Street in Human Kinetics Park near the recently-redeveloped Bristol Place neighborhood.
“The Martens Center really provides an institutional support for the redevelopment and the services provided in that area,” Carter said.
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