FORK UNION — Fork Union Military Academy has received a gift of $10.1 million, allowing the Virginia Baptist-affiliated school to begin construction on a new barracks facility — a project initiated three years ago.
The donors are Jerry and Laura Jacobson of Sugarcreek, Ohio, who have two sons enrolled in Fork Union's Middle School. In appreciation for the gift, the new barracks will be named Jacobson Hall.
The gift means that Fork Union will move forward with construction of the $20 million barracks. The school's policies require that at least half of the estimated total cost of any construction be in hand before breaking ground on a project. School officials said more than $12 million currently is available to begin construction.
Courtesy of Fork Union Military Academy
An architectural rendering of Fork Union's Jacobson Hall.
Fundraising for the new barracks began last September, with a construction start date envisoned in 2010 or 2011, depending on how well fundraising went. By December almost $2 million had been raised, leaving school officials uncertain whether to move forward in a floundering national economy. The Jacobsons' timely gift will accelerate the construction time frame to this year.
“In challenging times like these it's easy to come up with reasons to put off construction of a new barracks,” said George Currin, who chairs the board of trustees' barracks campaign cabinet, “but I look around and I can see at least 500 reasons why now is the right time to build,” referring to the number of cadets on campus.
Jacobson Hall will be a three-story building with 250 two-man rooms contained in five separate “company wings,” one for each company of the Upper School Corps of Cadets. The building will have about 100,000 square feet, almost twice as much as Snead and Memorial halls, the current barracks facilities, combined.
Three years ago engineers determined that Snead Hall, built in 1923, and Memorial Hall, built in 1941, were not “good candidates” for additional renovations. In response, the FUMA's board of trustees voted to replace both buildings with a new one. Jacobson Hall will occupy the area between Snead Hall and the outdoor track.
In addition to the cost of barracks construction, school officials estimate another $2.5 million will be needed for site preparation, barracks furnishings and other ancillary costs, bringing the total amount remaining to be raised to approximately $10.5 million.
The school's most recent capital campaign ended in July 2007 and exceeded its $29 million goal by about $4 million. Over $8.6 million of that money still remains to be collected on pledges made by donors to that campaign, with some of those pledges not due to be paid in full until 2017. Academy officials say that if some of those donors are willing to accelerate their payment schedules on those pledges, those capital gifts could be used in the Jacobson Hall project.