DERINE MCCROY displays an artist’s rendering of the new Joan Kroc Center to be located in Chandler Park. The Salvation Army still needs to raise nearly $40 million to begin construction of the facility.

The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division plans to open the Ray and Joan Kroc Center in Chandler Park, on Detroit’s east side. The center will serve as a community resource and recreational center.

The 100,000 square foot facility will include a senior citizens center, three gyms, a youth center, two pools, a recreation center, a walking trail, a fitness center, dance studios and group fitness rooms,

The center will also address social issues, such as providing emergency utility assistance, serving as a food pantry and offering parenting classes. The center aims to assist people in enhancing their lifestyles and just living better. Healthy eating courses will be taught to educate people on how to cook healthier foods.

Additional programming will include academic assistance, computer labs, administrative space, a community events hall, athletic fields and food service.

“I heard about the Kroc project and this initiative and how it has the opportunity to have a great impact on the community and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Derine McCroy. Kroc Center program director. “I wanted to be a part of an organization that will be life-altering in the city of Detroit.”

Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, left $1.6 billion for The Salvation Army after her death in 2003 to build and endow 40 community centers across the country.

The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division was awarded $50 million and needs to have the funds matched before beginning construction on the $98 million project. Nearly $40 million must be raised before construction can begin.

To raise the funds, the organization is offering a number of opportunities, whether through individual donors or corporate sponsors.

Located on 30 acres off Conner near I-94 and East Warren, the Kroc Center’s planners have carefully developed the plethora of programs, all created with the betterment of the community in mind.

Many of its east side programs are being run out of the Harding Center on Mack near French Road and will be moved to the Kroc Center.

The Kroc Center focuses on these components: health and wellness, human services, education and performing arts and character building and Christian family education to provide well-rounded programming to the community.

“The Kroc Center will not have the traditional programs,” McCroy said. “We are reincorporating what Joan Kroc wanted — to bring resources to the undeserved population and provide opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. We want to incorporate that into the programs we already have and with the vision and resources, we can make a tremendous impact in the community.”

Before construction begins, however, McCroy is also seeking to develop partnerships with existing organizations so programs and services will not be replicated.

“We do not want to duplicate anything that is already going on,” she said. “So we are working with the Samaritan Center and other organizations in the area so we can match our services with theirs.”

Organizations providing services in the area can contact Derine McCroy to establish partnerships with The Salvation Army at (248) 443-5500.

“We need to really focus on the endowment. We cannot charge the community what it would cost to operate and sustain the center; we want everyone that wants to come to the center to have the opportunity to do so. With the endowment it will allow us to have sliding scale so membership could be based on someone’s income and their ability to pay.
 
We aren’t setting the bar so high that if they don’t have those resources then they won’t be able to partake in the activities that will be there.”

“Being a part of the McDonald’s family and having worked for Ray and Joan Kroc for 15 years, I share their commitment to seeing projects come to fruition,” said Errol Service, who owns 15 McDonald’s restaurants in metro Detroit. “I strongly believe that the Kroc Center is needed on the east side and will become a beacon of hope and an agent of change for the people of this community.”

The Salvation Army, which was founded in 1865 in England, is a faith-based organization that assists more than eight million people a year.

For more information on The Salvation Army or ways to get involved in matching funds for the Kroc Center, call (248) or visit www.detrotikroc.org.