Thyens kickstart $8 million campaign with $1.7 million challenge

A $1.7 million challenge by Jim and Pat Thyen kickstarted an $8 million community-wide fundraising campaign to support the City of Jasper’s three large endeavors to redefine and reinvigorate itself.

The campaign and accompanying website, http://www.JasperLEADs.org, were revealed during a special meeting at the Jasper Council Chambers Wednesday morning. The collaborative effort is designed to raise funds for civic and community enhancements like the proposed Jasper Cultural Center, the renovation of the Astra Theater in the downtown and the redevelopment of the Courthouse Square. Hence, the LEAD— library, enrichment, arts, and downtown.

With the city in the process of engineering for the downtown revitalization, the Jasper Public Library and Jasper Community Arts Commission seeking to collaborate in the Jasper Cultural Center at the Hoosier Desk property on Mill Street and Next Act striving to fund the needed renovations to the historic Astra Theatre, the overarching goals of the organizations all coincide with the theme of turning Jasper into an attractive, community focused, vibrant city.

The campaign goal is $8 million spearheaded by a challenge gift proposal of $1.7 million from Jasper residents Jim and Pat Thyen. Faced with several large projects seeking the support of donors, Jim and Pat saw a need to remove the silos being erected for each of the projects and to bring the funding into one bucket.

Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz said that spurred the community campaign idea.  “Rather than have the supporters of these projects separately seek private contributions, they are collaborating to conduct a single major campaign.”

Mr. Thyen, the former CEO and President of Kimball International, emphasized the importance of the projects as tools to recruit talent. He challenged the community by asking citizens, “to shift energies away from what should be done with the Library at the Mill Street complex and focus on how we can successfully revitalize our core.”

During his remarks, Thyen emphasized the importance of revitalizing the core of the city, its downtown. He encouraged those in attendance to be positive about the future and to send that message to the youth.

The Thyen’s contribution comes with the caveat that funds be earmarked to ensure the arts has programming and the city continues to support the existing facilities with renovations and updates. “Sometimes we have buildings that are built and then have nothing planned on how it is going to be used, so we have asked for some of the funds to allocated for programs and services,” Mr. Thyen said. “We also don’t want to forget the fine facilities we already have on College Avenue.”

Longtime business owner and advocate for Jasper and the downtown, Maureen Braun emphasized the importance of continuing the developments collaboratively. “People want more to do when they visit and citizens want more offerings, especially for children,” she said. “We have creative people, entrepreneurs, who are ready to do collaborative things right now.”

The contribution is also dependent upon the new library being built, Mr. Thyen emphasized he and Pat  were supporters of the project as a necessary component of the revitalization efforts.

In deciding to become involved, the Thyens had observed all the activities occurring and could see the need for collaboration. “We felt they all should work together, and we thought the mayor should be the one leading that collaboration,” Mr. Thyen explained.

After approaching the mayor in March, a group was formed to combine the efforts and create Jasper LEADs. That group includes the mayor, Brad Ward of the Council on Foundations who will act as an advisor for the group, Jasper Library Board President Dean Vonderheide, Library Director Christine Golden, Arts Director Kit Miracle, arts commission member Linda Kahle, Next Act board member Courtney Knies, , City Attorney Renee Kabrick, Finishing Touches business owner Maureen Braun and former Jasper Councilman Dave Prechtel.

According to Mayor Seitz, the $8 million figure came about as the group put pencil to paper to tabulate the different entity’s goals.

Those amounts include the $2 million the Jasper Public Library would like to raise to offset the need for public money in the library portion of the Jasper Cultural Center. Board president Dean Vonderheide emphasized the library plans on building a new building at the Hoosier Desk site at Third and Mill streets but the design plans for that building have not been revealed yet.

The Next Act is also continuing its efforts to renovate the ongoing effort to renovate the historic theatre and is in the process of raising about $200,000 to obtain a matching grant of $400,000 from the state.

The City of Jasper is in the engineering stages for the Courthouse Square improvements that could require some infrastructure updates in addition to the creation of a more attractive venue for community members. Those improvements were included in the Jasper Downtown + Riverfront master plan completed in December 2013.

With the $8 million figure, Jim and Pat decided to contribute approximately 20 percent to invigorate the group’s efforts. The $1.7 million challenge will match the first $1.7 million raised dollar for dollar.

The group plans on giving some donors naming rights of aspects of the cultural center and downtown projects. Those amounts have yet to be determined.

“Please, please remember,” Pat Thyen emphasized. “no donation to the capital campaign is too small.”

The Jasper Public Library will act as the fiscal agent for Jasper LEADs. Public contributions can be made via the website, www.jasperleads.org or c/o Jasper Public Library, 1116 Main Street, Jasper, IN 47546.