Capital Campaign

A Campaign for the Albion United Methodist Church

The Capital Campaign

At the Albion United Methodist Church, we are the recipients of a rich heritage of loving God and loving each other. Our forerunners in the faith have left us a legacy of serving, sharing and caring that gives life to this Christian community. With the campaign, we seek to build upon that faith for the future.

Opening Doors for the Future …

Through this campaign, we seek to improve the

• Visibility
• Usability
• Accessibility

of our church for

• the Albion FUMC congregation
• Albion College
• our constituents in the Albion community

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Our Campaign Timeline and Goal

The projected cost for this project is approximately $1.5 million. The Capital Campaign committee is planning a fund raising project lasting 3 years.

The Details, Simplified

• Provide new barrier free entry doors, entrance canopy, and brick paver walk on the west side
• Provide a new elevator
• Renovate administration area, provide barrier free entry to rear of building, reconfigure remaining doorways to meet barrier and new finishes
• Renovate existing restrooms to meet barrier free regulations
• Provide air conditioning in Tennant Hall and Fellowship areas along with redecorating the area finish materials
• Replace all windows
• Renovation and addition of lounge area and new canopy
• Upper level restroom and kitchen renovation
• Apartment renovations
• Redo soffits with windows, redo cupola, redo fascia

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Campaign Update — May 1, 2008

The Capital Campaign and Building Committees continue to work hard to raise funds and to keep the building renovations moving ahead.

The Building Committee met on March 31st with representatives from Orion Construction and our architects, Jeffrey Parker and Associates, to continue discussion of the final details of Phase 1 as well as plans for Phase 2. You might have noticed that the trim and soffits of our building are being repaired and painted. In addition, work this summer will complete the rebuilding of our cupola.

In March the Capital Campaign committee sent letters to 15 foundations around the state, requesting support for the Opening Doors for Tomorrow campaign.  Locally, grant requests were sent to the Albion Community Foundation and to the Albion Rotary Foundation. A request for funds was also made to the Albion First UMC Endowment fund, and $3,020.23 was received for use in the capital campaign.

As you are aware, Albion First UMC has received a Challenge Grant from an anonymous foundation for $150,000 over five years.  The funds will be paid in five annual installments of $30,000 each, on the condition that we can match this amount in new gifts for each of the five years.

The goal of this grant is to accelerate the beginning of Phase 2 by challenging Albion FUMC to raise additional funds and to leverage its resources to ensure Phase 2 is completed in a timely manner. Albion FUMC must match this foundation gift dollar for dollar. We will receive the first payment as soon as we notify the foundation that we have raised $30,000 in new monies; currently we have raised $18,233 of the match in 2008.

Furthermore, this foundation challenge grant gives the church its first named gift. The Oswego St. entranceway will be named for this foundation. To learn more about Named Giving Opportunities, please click Here.

Your help is greatly needed to ensure our full receipt of this Challenge Grant. If you have not yet made a gift or pledge to the Opening Doors for Tomorrow Capital Campaign, please give serious and prayerful consideration to doing so now. If you have questions, a member of the Capital Campaign committee would be happy to meet with you to discuss the variety of ways in which you can make a gift, including named giving opportunities.  For additional information on a variety of ways to support the Church, consult our Giving to FUMC page.

Letters will be sent soon to those in our church who have not yet made a gift or pledge toward the campaign. Additionally, reminder letters will also be sent to those who have made pledges to ask that pledge payments be made at the giver’s earliest convenience to ensure that we pay off our debt as quickly as possible.

The success of this project depends on each one of us. We thank you for your support, gifts, and prayers.

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Capital Campaign and Building Committee Members

Dwayne Bagley, Co-Chair Building Committee Chair
Andrew French, Co-Chair Capital Campaign Committee; Co-Chair Building Committee
William Rafaill, Co-Chair Capital Campaign Committee
Hilda Ebbinghaus, Capital Campaign & Building Committees
Lisa French, Capital Campaign Committee
Barbara Rafaill, Building Committee
Elaine Rice, Capital Campaign & Building Committees
Ron Rice, Building Committee
Leroy Schmidt, Building Committee
Connie Tuthill, Building Committee
Nidia Wolf, Capital Campaign Committee

If you have any questions, please direct them to any one of the committee members.

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The Building Plans

The Building Timeline

The construction work will be done in phases.

The work on Phase 1 is essentially finished. The following items are completed:

• Air Conditioning for Tennant Hall and Fellowship Lounge
• Enlargement of the bathrooms on the first floor and at the same time make them handicap accessible
• Tennant Hall roof repair
• New lighting and acoustics in Tennant Hall
• Installation of energy efficient windows
• Remodeling of the West Entrance to make it handicap accessible, including power assisted doors
• Reconfiguration of the coat closet to provide more usable space

Yet to be completed in Phase 1 are the accoutrements of the interior space of Tennant Hall.

The work on Phase 2 is being planned (see next section for an update). Work could begin as early as late summer or early fall of 2008 and will continue through most of 2009.

Phases 3 and 4 include

• elevator
• reconfiguration of the church office to accommodate the elevator
• expansion of Wesley Lounge
• installation of new windows and doors in Wesley Chapel/Lounge
• reconfiguration of bathrooms and warming kitchen in Wesley Chapel/Lounge
• creation of a new, handicap accessible entrance to Wesley Chapel/Lounge
• landscaping of the grounds surrounding the building

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Building Update

The Building Committee met on March 31st with representatives from Orion Construction and our architects, Jeffrey Parker and Associates, to continue the discussion of the final details of Phase 1 and the details of the plans for Phase 2.

Phase 1

The remaining items for Phase I are:

• to paint the electrical conduit which runs up the outside corner of the building on Oswego St. (corner where the education wing meets Fellowship Lounge)
• the landscaping of the area around Fellowship Lounge
• the start up and balancing of the air conditioning unit in Tennant Hall
• and the painting of some cement blocks in the wall of the room previously occupied by the Forks Senior Center

Representatives from Orion assured the committee that these items will all be dealt with as weather permits.

Tennant Hall Roof

There is still a spot in Tennant Hall where the roof is leaking as evidence by the recent, hard rain. Orion said they would get someone over here to try to locate the leak and get it taken care of right away.

Phase I Final Pay

The committee approved the payment of the remaining balance on Phase I ($7,678.30). This brings the total paid out to Orion II Construction for Phase I to $386,683.00. The total paid to Jeffrey Parker Architects (for the total project, that is all phases) is $113,919.60. Thus the total paid to date to both Orion and the architects is $500,602.60.

Phase 2

Here are the updated cost estimates for the various segments of our next phase of remodeling:

The committee reviewed in detail with Orion what was included in each of these segments and then asked Orion to separate the expenses for the completion of the Oswego St. entrance from the parking lot entrance. Orion stated they will have that price to us by the end of the week.

Fascia & Cupola

Orion stated the cost to have a contractor scrape and paint the existing fascia would be in the neighborhood of $13,000.00 plus any costs incurred to replace boards which have deteriorated. The bid for the replacement of the fascia is to use Pypon which is a solid material that will never require painting and is also the material quoted for the rebuild of the cupola. After discussion the committee agreed that we proceed with the replacement of the current fascia at a cost of $83,711.00 and also the rebuilding of the cupola at a cost of $25,953.00.

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Updates to the campaign will be posted on this page. Return to it often!