Challenge grant from mid-Michigan residents boosting donations for veterans’ workshop
By TREVOR SOCHOCKI, JAMES PAXSON
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BAY CITY, Michigan (WNEM) — The Bay Area Veterans Workshop and Learning Center will help veterans transition to civilian life and learn new skills.
The foundation behind it could get up to a $100,000.
The Bay Area Veterans Workshop and Learning Center is back on solid financial ground after a challenge grant from locals Beth and Tim Boutell.
Keith Markstrom is a founding member and president of the Bay Veterans Foundation.
“The Boutell gift was huge and instrumental, and it’s still out there for people to use towards a match,” Markstrom said.
The non-profit is building the workshop.
“This is the assurance that the physical component of the building is going to be completed. So now we can shift our priorities to programming and the other connections within the community,” Markstrom said.
The grant will match up to $50,000 in donations, for a possible total of $100,000.
The workshop and learning center are coming together. They have built up walls, ceilings, and lights.
The money, along with other donations, ensures the work will get done.
“It takes the immediate pressure off, there’s, there was a lot of months where we would sit out and say, ok, if we have to pay for this, what’s gonna have to wait, and pressure is off, we know we have enough to complete phase one,” said Mike Jamrog, treasurer of Bay Veterans Foundation.
Phase one is the main building. The later phases are for other spaces, like a garage.
“Please, we invite you to come down and, and be a participant. The worst thing in the world that I hear sometimes is ‘well, I didn’t know anything about your program. I didn’t know that anybody was doing anything over there,” Jamrog said.
The challenge grant goes until Jan. 31.
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