(Spirit Lake)– The Mueske Family Foundation today (Wed.) announced it will be matching donations to the YMCA of the Okoboji’s up to $100,000 through this coming August 1st. Andrew Fisher, CEO of the YMCA of the Okoboji’s says they’re very grateful for the foundation’s support saying it comes at a very critical time…
“There’s been a number of people that have reached out to us to support us through this difficult time in our organization, both the Bedell Family YMCA and Camp Foster, and we’re so appreciative of those donors for doing that. This lead gift here potentially helps us in an even bigger way. And so we’re thankful for their leadership and putting that challenge out there to that and if people have interest in being a part of that matching process, they can reach out to us here at any of our facilities. They can reach out to me specifically or Cindy Rosa, our Development Director. Also on our web pages, ymcaokoboji.com as well as campfosterymca. com. There are links to where people can do online gifts. We’re just extremely grateful for this opportunity during the time when we’ve experienced a large deficit in terms of membership, contributions, as well as programming fees.”
The pandemic forced the organization to cancel its 2020 overnight camp season at Camp Foster that resulted in a projected financial loss of about a million dollars for the Y as a whole. As we reported previously, to help offset that the Y recently closed its Healthy Living Programming Center in Spirit Lake, reduced staff and restructured debt.
Fisher says they’re working on plans for a special fundraising event for their Strong Kids Campaign July 31st at Camp Foster…
“Our goal with this event is one, to raise funds for the organization; two to expose people to Camp Foster that maybe haven’t been able to do that before and see really where the YMCA organization started as well as talk to them about how they can continue to support our organization moving forward.”
Fisher says additional details will be forthcoming.
