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Ground breaking on the $36 million facility expected this fall
BY LINDA MOSS
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
FOURTH IN A FOUR-PART SERIES ON THE SALVATION ARMY IN NEW JERSEY
Camden is a hard-luck city, so troubled and impoverished that the State of New Jersey appointed a chief operating officer to run it. In July, that official painted a sad picture of the town.
"Unfortunately, the City over the last few decades has become the repository of all of the social ills of the country and elsewhere," chief operating officer Theodore Davis wrote.
Then just a month later, Davis suddenly announced he was quitting, effective Aug. 31.
"To the citizens of Camden: Don't ever lose hope," Davis said in his resignation statement. He implored residents "to jettison the culture of dependency upon the State" and take responsibility for their own fate.
City officials believe there is at least one local initiative that represents a beacon of hope for Camden, as it tries to make a comeback: The proposed $36 million Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. That facility is slated for a 24-acre site that's part of a reclaimed landfill on the Delaware River, in the city's Cramer Hill section.But for the center to move forward, the Camden Salvation Army Citadel has a big challenge: raising $10 million in a difficult economic environment, in a particularly beleaguered urban area.
Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray, in 2003 bequeathed $1.8 billion to the Salvation Army to build community centers across the country. Camden was chosen for one of the Kroc centers.
But there is a big catch for the Salvation Army in any city picked as a Kroc site: Mrs. Kroc stipulated that each local Salvation outlet must raise additional money to fund its Kroc center.
Camden's Kroc center is slated to receive $54 million from the widow's estate, with $27 million for construction and $27 million to fund an operational endowment, according to Major Paul Cain, the center's administrator.
But to get that $54 million the Camden Salvation Army, one of the group's oldest outposts in the United States, has to raise $10 million on its own: $5 million in capital costs and $5 million for the endowment.
Cain said he's "very optimistic" about prospects for securing the local funding. Trying to get the Kroc center off the ground has been a four-year process, involving hundreds of meetings, and "the program is moving forward," according to Cain.
But the economy has derailed construction of several Kroc centers, and has the Salvation Army in other cities struggling to raise money. Plans for Kroc centers in Detroit and Massena, N.Y., were scrapped, the New York Times reported in June.
Cain, who said the fundraising drive in Camden has only recently begun, is undaunted. So far, the Camden Salvation Army has about $800,000 from its board members and campaign committee members.
The timeline is to raise $3.8 million by early October, when groundbreaking will take place, and have $7.5 million by next May. The center is scheduled to open in November 2011.
"Those are aggressive benchmarks," Cain said. "If they're not hit, we'll readjust."
The Camden Kroc center would be a crown jewel for the city. Plans call for a 120,000-square-foot facility with a family center; a learning and technology center; a performing arts theater; a recreation center; an aquatic center and a town plaza.
"The possibilities for having such an incredible center in the town and in this region are remarkable," said Saundra Ross Johnson, executive director of the Camden Redevelopment Agency.
She added that the area where the Kroc will be built, Cramer Hill, is "a well-defined neighborhood with a strong spirit."
As for the Kroc Center, Johnson said, "Everyone is energized about it. Everyone is waiting with bated breath."
Cain conceded Camden has many problems.
"Yes, there's still a lot of crime. Yes, there are still murders," Cain said. But he added that residents have become mobilized and organized and are "anxious for change."
Cain noted that 10,000 residents live within 15 minutes' walking distance of the proposed Kroc center, which will cater to all age groups. It would be built on a former landfill, which will be cleaned through up to $12 million in funding from the state, according to Cain. The remediation process starts in September.
"We got phenomenal support from the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection)," Cain said.
As for the effort to raise the necessary $10 million, Salvation Army officials acknowledged that the nation's economic meltdown is making it harder. But those officials said donors are still giving, although perhaps less than they would have a few years ago.
"We've gotten some who said, ‘I'd like to give this much, but I can only give this much,'" Cain said. "We have had no one say no yet."
Joe Nardi, an attorney who is chairman of the Camden Salvation Army advisory board, said donations so far "are perhaps more modest" than might have been expected originally.
"We're getting gifts, but people are telling us come back in six months to a year (for potential additional donations)," Nardi said.
"We realize we have a greater challenge in these economic times."
That means the Kroc center's funding appeal in Camden needs to be broad-based, and reach more individuals and corporations, according to Nardi.
The New Jersey division of the Salvation Army is trying to lend a hand to Cain as he leads the appeal for $10 million.
"That is an awesome responsibility, let me tell you," said Major Vicki Berry, associate divisional commander for the New Jersey. "We are at his right side whenever he wants us to be. We go down regularly for fundraising committee meetings and all kinds of planning meetings. That is totally in our radar."
Berry said she is confident the Kroc center in Camden will come to fruition, and that Cain will raise the necessary funds.
"It's unfortunate that the economic times are as they are, because the Kroc money left to us, there was no timing involved in that...Who was to know that there would be this economic downturn?" Berry said.
"But you'd be surprised at the people who want to help Camden," she said. "Camden's been a desperate site in New Jersey, and for the country, for many years. People have stepped up, and then turned away. So, even the community itself was skeptical as to, ‘Are you a flash-in-the-pan kind of thing?' But this commitment to Camden is solid, and the people who have stepped up to help us down there in the fundraising are totally committed to making this happen."
Some city officials are optimistic, too. "It's going to happen," Johnson said. "I firmly believe it's going to happen."
OTHER STORIES IN THE SALVATION ARMY SERIES
New Jersey Salvation Army finds some donors have become clients
Salvation Army citadel expands services in Montclair as need grows
