Homer athletes, dancers and tiny tots are one step closer to having new floors at the South Peninsula Athletic & Recreation Center, known as the SPARC. Last month, the non-profit athletic facility met a fundraising goal to apply for matching grant funding to install a new floor.
The estimated cost is $480,000. The SPARC board and its supporters have been raising money in the hopes of getting the support of the Vancouver, Washington-based M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust to match half of that. The goal was to raise at least 40% or about $192,000 before formally applying to their grant program.
Ginny Espenshade is on the board of directors that manages the SPARC, and said she is optimistic their application will be successful next month.
“At this point, we've been able to raise locally 46% of that," she said. "So we're in as good a position or better than we hoped for back in October.”
Homer Foundation donated $25,000 to the SPARC this week, and there have been a number of other substantial donors, but Espenshade said she’s seen support from across the community.
“The number of donors, as well as the overall amounts have been just amazing. Just the support we get from people — every single gift is significant," she said.
The SPARC opened to the public in 2017 with used athletic floor tiles from a facility in Anchorage, and the other half donated by the local Subway franchise. Espenshade said the flooring was never meant to be permanent.
“The current floor is just rigid plastic, sports flooring tiles but laid over crushed gravel and sand," she said. "So over the years, there's some dead spots, and there's a few little rises in it that don't make for optimal playing or even walking.”
Espenshade said if their application with the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is approved, the goal is to have a poured concrete slab underway in late May or early June, with flooring installed in time for the SPARC’s peak season starting in the fall.
“I come from a background of playing sports," Espenshade said. "We've done everything we can to be in a position for it to be a success."
The SPARC will be looking for volunteers to help remove the old flooring when the time comes. To donate to the fundraising campaign, you can go to sparchomer.org, or as Espenshade said, do it old school and stop by the SPARC in person.
