FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Name: The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center

Location: 1315 Lime Kiln Road Green Bay, Wisconsin (Brown County)

Facility Size: 102,000 square feet of building space on a 15-acre site.

Groundbreaking Date: Groundbreaking occurred on Thursday, April 29, 2010.

Construction Time: 16 months from groundbreaking

Construction Manager: Miron Construction

Architect: Berners-Schober & Associates and Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture

Scholarships Provided: Yes - Scholarship Application

Donations Offered: Yes - Donation Request Form

Key Elements:

  • Gymnasium/Jogging Track
  • Aquatic Center
  • Recreation Fields
  • Fitness Area
  • Outdoor Gathering Space
  • Life Enhancement & Family Support Programs
  • Worship Center / Auditorium
  • Performing & Visual Arts Space
  • Resource and Computer Lab
  • Extensive Meeting and Event Space
  • Catering Services

Why did Mrs. Kroc pick The Salvation Army:

Mrs. Kroc and her husband Ray, founder of McDonald’s, were longtime supporters of The Salvation Army. During the 1950s and ’60s, Ray volunteered as a bell ringer and delivered hot coffee and hamburgers from his Golden Arches restaurant to bell ringers along Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. Mrs. Kroc remembered hearing her family talk around the dinner table about how The Salvation Army helped people during the Depression. She made her first large gift — in excess of $90 million — a decade ago to establish the first Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in San Diego. That center opened in 2002 to great success and Mrs. Kroc visited often. She felt the center exceeded her own expectations and was an ideal vehicle for her vision.

How will the donation be used:

Mrs. Kroc’s gift will be used exclusively to build and partially endow an estimated 27 community centers across the United States, similar to the existing Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in San Diego. Her gift stipulates that half the money must be used only for construction of the centers; the other half of the money must be allocated for an endowment, the interest of which will be used to partially support operation of the centers. None of the gift may be used to financially support existing Salvation Army programs and services.