Sunshine Center Capital Campaign 2024

About the Campaign: Raising Funds to Support the Center

The Friends of the Sunshine Center's Capital Campaign 2024 has the goal of raising funds to support the Sunshine Center -- a vitally important resource for our local senior community. Please consider making a contribution pledge.
 
It’s been well over two decades since the center has had any major capital funding to address its increasing need to renovate to meet the demands of its future and keep up with the societal changes for the senior population of St. Petersburg. With that challenge, the Friends of the Sunshine Center began a Capital Campaign of its own in 2023 and established a separate fund for donations earmarked for future major center renovations and/or expansion. Our initial goal is to raise $50,000 over the next four years by the center’s 50th anniversary. Our hope is that this will be significant enough to encourage the City of St. Petersburg to partner with us through local, state or national grants and/or future Penny for Pinellas tax funding for local projects. This is only the first step to secure funding, but then comes the exciting part of engaging in the actual planning process.

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About the Sunshine Center

The Sunshine Multi-Service Senior Center first opened its doors on September 6, 1977 and will be celebrating its 50th anniversary in less than four years. It opened its original two-story 14,000 sq. ft. building to a very large crowd of older adults seeking opportunities for participation in activities and community-based services to enrich their lives. It was clear at that time that expansion plans were needed to address the increasing demand of the community to provide even more services and programming.
 
In 1982, its 5,560 square ft. courtyard expansion was dedicated. Eventually, the Sunshine Center expanded its responsibility even more by taking over primary maintenance of the Shuffleboard Club (1998) as well as the Lawn Bowling and Chess clubs (2001), which increased our total two-block campus responsibility to 63,000 sq. ft. of buildings to maintain.

Where the Campaign Stands Now

We already have over $6,000 in the fund and I will personally guarantee that the fund will grow to $11,000 before the end of 2024. So please consider contributing to Sunshine Center Capital Campaign. I will dust off our original theme for the Sunshine Center’s original dedication “A Dream Becomes a Reality” and help us make this dream come true.
 

Jay Morgan – Sunshine Center Board Member