BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE SETS FUND-RAISING HISTORY, MEETS THE KRESGE CHALLENGE
January 19, 2001 - Thanks to the generosity of corporations, foundations, trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends, it’s been a record-setting year for Bloomfield College fund-raising. The College has raised $8.2 million so far for its capital campaign - the largest and most successful fund-raising campaign in the 133-year history of the College - in support of its new library on the corner of Liberty Street and Oakland Avenue in Bloomfield.
Bloomfield College gained much of the momentum for its campaign after the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan, awarded a $500,000 grant to the College toward construction of the library. This prestigious award came with the challenge to raise the balance of the Campaign for Bloomfield College by December 31, 2000.
“We are pleased to announce that we have met and surpassed the Kresge Challenge,” said Vice President for College Relations Linda C. Epps. “The Kresge grant underscored our own commitment to the new library and confirmed what we already knew: Bloomfield College is blessed with trustees, alumni, faculty, staff and friends who have a deep appreciation for its mission.”
The Kresge Foundation is an independent, private foundation created by the personal gifts of Sebastian S. Kresge. It is not affiliated with any corporation or organization.
Other lead donors to the Campaign for Bloomfield College include Cyrus H. Holley, the Victoria Foundation, Inc., Evie Penick-Schmitz, L. Donald LaTorre, Adrian A. Shelby, Richard Pollack, Martin McKerrow, the Dana Beck Fancher Missions Fund, the Bailye Family Foundation, the MCJ Foundation, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the Josh and Judy Weston Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Automatic Data Processing, Dendrite Corporation, and Ruth & Peter Perretti.
“We are pleased to have such tremendous participation not only from foundations, corporations and friends of the College, but also from members of the College community,” said Vice President Epps. “So far, 88 percent of Bloomfield College employees have given to the campaign. It’s a powerful indicator of the faculty and staff’s belief in the mission and students of this institution.”
Bloomfield employees have contributed a total of $275,732 to the campaign, while the College’s trustees and former trustees have given nearly $2.5 million.
“Support for the library has been phenomenal,” said President John F. Noonan. “We are proud of our progress and will look to the College’s dedicated alumni to complete the next leg of our fund raising journey.”
The new Bloomfield College library, which opened in September, is the first new building on the Bloomfield College campus in 30 years and is the centerpiece of the College’s plans for the new century. The new $7 million, 30,000-square foot building more than doubles the space of the previous library, Talbott Hall, opened in 1955 to serve an enrollment of 200 students. Today, the College enrolls 1,900 students.
The library features state-of-the-art technology and includes more than 200 ports of Internet access, interactive classrooms, a media center, a computer center, and an electronic reference collection.
