HILLSBORO, Kan. – In 2014 Tabor College received a challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation. If Tabor met the challenge to raise $8 million toward the Center for the Arts, Mabee would award Tabor with $1 million as soon as construction on the facility began. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of donors, Tabor met the challenge in 2015.
Now that construction is moving forward the check has arrived.
“We are thankful for the gift from the Mabee Foundation to support the Center for the Arts,” Jules Glanzer president of Tabor said. “The challenge grant provided the extra motivation we needed to complete our fundraising goal. The foundation’s efforts to aid Christian organizations and institutions of higher learning have made a huge difference for Tabor and many others.”
Through the challenge grant from Mabee, Tabor was able to add $2.7 million to the Signature Campaign, a capital campaign that is raising money for the construction of the Center for the Arts and several campus projects.
“The generosity and sacrifice of our people to meet the challenge given us by the Mabee Foundation enabled us to move forward with realizing the long held dream of a Center for the Arts,” Glanzer said. “We would not be watching the construction today if our people had not stepped up and participated with their generous gifts and commitments.”
In addition to housing an 800-plus auditorium for chapel, music and theater performances and community events, the facility will also have classroom and studio space, an art gallery and a Starbucks open to the public. Construction on the building began in July. The $13.6 million project is expected to be completed in the fall of 2017.