It all started when Witham Health Services CEO Ray Ingham moved to town. He had a vision for a wellness program through the hospital, but he didn’t think the hospital was the best place to house it. At the same time, a group was starting to work on the possibility of building at YMCA in Boone County, Mark Ransom was part of that group, and as a CFBC board member, he realized that the Community Foundation was the perfect place to accept donations to a capital campaign. Knowing that donors would feel more comfortable having a fund designated for the building project, he worked with CFBC to set up a pass-through fund to accept gifts and pledges.
As the fund grew and generated interest, it also helped the Foundation’s endowment grow, which prompted the CFBC board to grant that interest back to the Y’s capital campaign. As Mark explains, “The Community Foundation just made it a simple process for donors and the Y. It was really a win-win situation for everyone involved.”
Over the course of eight years, 168 different donors contributed almost $2 million to the capital campaign – a true testament to the power of community. In a unique partnership with Witham – which provided its own investment of $2.5 million, the wellness program that Dr. Ingham had envisioned now operates out of the Y, located on Witham’s Lebanon campus.
Prior to the state-of-the-art facility opening in 2010, Mark explains that there was no central place for all of the services the Y provides. He applauds this “great example of partnership” and what it’s done for the wellness of the community – a community so committed that they accomplished in eight years what normally takes 10.