The Dorchester Children’s Center has gotten an early Christmas gift of $500,000 – and another $500,000 will follow up in the future.
The center is holding a capital campaign for its building expansion project. The overall project is $2.5 million.
The Roper St. Francis Physician’s Endowment is giving the center a total of $1 million to help with the expansion.
The center has already been granted $500,000 and when it matches that by raising $500,000 through donations and pledges, the endowment will give the center another $500,000.
Rachel Sheridan, fund development director for the center, said this is the biggest gift the center has ever received.
The money will allow the center to not have to continue borrowing bunds for the expansion project, so now the center can focus on programs it provides for children.
“It’s really important for us to proceed debt-free,” Sheridan said.
The building is expected to be completed by the end of January, with staff moving in sometime toward the end of February. Sheridan said the new space will allow for more medical and interview rooms, as well as more family meeting rooms.
Sheridan said the center’s Executive Director Kay Phillips has been smiling ever since receiving the news in November.
Phillips said the expansion space is badly needed, and the amount of money received through the endowment is “really amazing.”
The funds were approved by the Medical Society of South Carolina in mid-November, said CEO John Holloway.
Holloway said the funds were approved based on Phillips’s efforts to help children.
“We were so impressed with her program and the way she runs things up there,” Holloway said.
Phillips said the amount received was more than anticipated.
“We were thrilled they were going to consider giving us anything,” she said, adding that it is hard to get funding for “brick and mortar” projects; typically endowments prefer to fund programs.
However, funding this building will allow the center to expand programs as well.
“I’m still shocked – but very pleasantly,” Phillips said.
Now the center just needs to focus on matching that $500,000 – and Phillips is confident that they will.
“We feel we will be successful, really because of the community we live in,” she said.
