By JEFF LAMPE
For The Weekly Post
ELMWOOD – When Micki McCarthy looks out of her office window in Graham Medical Group’s Elmwood clinic, she is eager to see one thing sprout on the ag field that stretches to the north.
“I’m so excited to see the little wooden posts with the flags,” McCarthy said. “The surveyor posts.”
When she sees those, McCarthy will know her efforts and those of many others in the past decade have finally come to fruition in the form of a Community Wellness Center.
That reality is growing closer, says McCarthy, who spearheads fundraising for an ambitious project of the Elmwood Community Foundation that has so far generated nearly $9 million of a needed $12.4 million. In the past 18 months, $5 million was added to that total, said McCarthy, noting the fundraiser has generated 142 pledges and gifts from across central Illinois and out of state. Among those gifts, McCarthy said six have been well over six figures.
Added traction has come from matching grants. The Gilmore Foundation will match gifts from Caterpillar Inc. employees and retirees up to up to $250,000. Another anonymous family foundation is matching any gifts or pledges up to $250,000. A $1 million matching grant from Doug and Diane Oberhelman has already been maxed out, McCarthy said.
And the recent Caterpillar Foundation’s 10:1 matching effort, which doled out $10 million in a week, generated $29,500.
“We continue to be hopeful to celebrate groundbreaking later this year. We have a path,” McCarthy said. “Once we get to $10 million, we have so many people who are capable … they will say ‘Let’s get you over the finish line and get construction started.’”
But McCarthy and Dick Taylor, new president of the Elmwood Community Foundation, agree reaching $10 million is a critical step. Pledges can be made at imaginecwc.org. Taylor said if the project doesn’t happen, any pledges will be voided.
Ironically, as recently as four years ago, the total cost of the Wellness Center was under $10 million. Since then, construction costs have skyrocketed. But Taylor said the $12.4 million figure is firm.
“We will have to adjust to the budget,” Taylor said.
McCarthy said all $12.4 million must be pledged before construction can start, as per the USDA, which jumpstarted the effort with a $3.75 million grant in 2023. Despite a changing federal environment, Taylor stressed the USDA funding is secure.
To prepare for reaching the eventual goal, Farnsworth Group of Peoria has deferred payment on starting schematic designs of the facility to help speed up the construction timeline.
And even if budget realities lead to changes in the look of the facility, Taylor said central elements will still include a walking track, swimming pool, basketball courts, fitness center and meeting room.
Those elements are keys to the collaborative effort driving the project. In addition to the ECF, Graham Health System and the Greater Peoria Family YMCA are active partners.
The ECF is in charge of fundraising and design of the wellness center, which will be operated by the YMCA. To build toward that day, the YMCA is running after-school programs in Elmwood and will run a summer camp at Elmwood Elementary School starting in June.
Graham has a busy medical clinic just south of the ag field on which the ECF hopes to build. Graham will rent space in the center for rehabilitation, therapy and group mental-health activities and has so far donated $1.5 million.
“We’re kind of like a little kid waiting for a Christmas gift to get in there,” said Bob Senneff, president and CEO of Graham Health System. “Most of what we can do in addition to what we’re already doing in Elmwood is dependent on the building being there.”
Senneff credits Elmwood as a major first step in Graham’s ongoing expansion.
“Elmwood was something different for us, and it has paid off in spades,” Senneff said. “That really primed the pump for us to go into new markets.”
Credit for Graham coming to Elmwood goes also to the ECF, whose leadership has undergone changes this year. After 14 years as president of the group, Tony Hart became vice president and Taylor took over the helm. The ECF also added new members to its board of directors: Kristen Jackson, Cheryl Harlow, Dimitri Beres and Keitra Sparks.
Finally, the group adopted a new mission statement: “The mission of the Elmwood Community Foundation is to enhance the quality of life, through philanthropic and other support efforts, for the residents, businesses, and organizations within the rural communities that include and surround the City of Elmwood.”
McCarthy said nothing will better illustrate that than opening the wellness center.
“I realize how much this is going to change our quality of life,” she said. “It’s going to be a game-changer for all of us and I’m so proud and happy to be involved with this.”
