PEORIA, Ill. – A Peoria based organization that aims to help youth get on the right path to success will have a new place to call home.
Elite Community Outreach will occupy the corner of Randolph and North after OSF donated its former medical building to the organization. The announcement was made Tuesday morning at a press conference at the location.
In addition, Elite has also purchased the rights to the Chocolate Turkey run each Thanksgiving morning, and will be used as the organization’s main fundraiser each year.
Elite Founder Carl Cannon says the donation is “overwhelming.”
“I’m pinching myself,” Cannon said. “To get to this very day, to have brick and mortar that’s yours, it’s a God thing.”
Currently, Elite hosts their safe school at Dream Center Peoria. Cannon says the new building will be able to have multiple classrooms to separate students by grade level. He adds the new building will be able to serve 200-300 students, compared to the around 50 it can currently serve.
Elite plans to demolish the former medical building on the site and build a new building for the safe school. Cannon estimates it will take between one and three years to complete the entire process.
Cannon estimates it will take around $7 million to demolish the old building and build the new one. He says that was the easier option than rehabbing the old building, with estimates of around $13 million.
Cannon says a capital campaign will be implemented to try and raise the funds for the project. He says $1 million has already been secured, and the organization is looking into potential state and federal funding.
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