SUPPORT US
Funding for the Arvig® Walker Area Community Center, a Non-Profit 501C3 Organization, is provided by our sponsorship from Arvig, our annual Fundraising Prize Calendar, our annual golf event, fitness memberships, donations from our supportive community, and advertising options in our building. We also have more ways to give listed below!
We've made it easy for you to make an online donation to the WACC in one of two ways:
DONATE THROUGH PAYPAL
DONATE THROUGH GIVEMN
Advertising Opportunities
There are many good reasons to advertise, including attracting new customers, increasing sales and business growth. The advertising opportunities offered by the WACC will be seen by members and guests during the over 40,000 visits to our facility annually in high traffic areas throughout our facility for hockey games, curling, meetings, fitness, programs and classes.
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Advertising season is from July1 – June 30
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Ads will be pro-rated from date ad is placed.
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Rates listed are per year
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Advertisers are responsible for all templates and production costs associated with ad. Can be added to advertising invoice.
FRONT ENTRY
Single Doors $500
Double Doors $1000
FITNESS CENTER/GYMNASIUM
4’ x 8’ Window $1000
Custom Size Wall Cling*
HALLWAYS
4’ x 8’ Window $1000
Exterior Window $250
Center TV (2) $300
Custom Size Wall Cling*
ARENA
Banner $250
*Price varies depending on size
Other Ways to Support Us!
As a public 501c3 charity:
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WACC accepts gifts from individuals, families and businesses for specific purposes or general endowment.
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WACC accepts and administers funds from other charitable groups to help them achieve their goals
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Gifts to WACC are usually tax-deductible!
Examples of tax-deductible gifts:
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Cash
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Appreciated Securities, Property & Real Estate
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Bequests
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Life insurance
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Trusts
Donating by means of bequests:
Here are several of the more common approaches for making bequests:
Designate the WACC as a beneficiary. Designating the WACC as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy, qualified retirement plan, taxsheltered annuity, or nonqualified annuity is simple and can benefit heirs by reducing or eliminating estate taxes.
Leave a bequest to the WACC in a will. This is an extremely simple way to transfer assets at death to charitable purposes. For donors who wish to manage assets while they are living, they may be bequeathed within the framework of a revocable living trust which can be changed at anytime up to death or incapacitation.
Create a charitable gift annuity. This enables the WACC to obtain a donor’s money up front in exchange for a promise by the WACC to pay the donor an income stream for a specified period, including for life. When the donor passes away, all remaining moneys goes to the WACC for purposes specified by the donor.
Create a charitable trust. This enables a donor to place appreciated assets into a trust, receive a guaranteed stream of income for not more than twenty years, and have what’s left in the trust revert to the WACC or the donor’s heirs. A charitable trust may be attractive to people with significant appreciated assets and a desire to utilize numerous tax advantages available to charitable trusts. It is important that such arrangements are thoroughly discussed within families and, since most of these methods involve significant tax ramifications (income, capital gains and inheritance), with financial advisors as well. Finally, it is equally important that the WACC have discussions with the donor before he/she establishes a bequest in order to ensure that the donor’s specific charitable wishes are understood and followed. Please contact a WACC board member for more information about bequests and their many advantages.
The Future Looks
Bright for the WACC!
A Message from the Arvig® Walker Area Community Center Board of Directors
A recent fundraiser and partnership for the Walker Area Community Center is giving the organization a positive outlook for the next 5 years and beyond.
It is no secret the WACC has struggled financially over the years. While the doors have never closed, there’s times that they have come close, as recent as early last summer. Financial issues including expensive utility bills, a decrease in memberships, loss of signature events such as the Polar Pout Plunge and the North Country Marathon and the debt still owed for the original building construction are contributors.
With a rejuvenated board of directors, they set out to try something that hadn’t been tried before, which was a fundraising calendar. With help from Reeds Family Outdoor Outfitters and Randall Morrison taking the lead, the board unanimously approved to put together a raffle calendar that offered a prize a day. Ads were sold to local businesses committed to supporting the community center to help with printing costs. With a selling price of $50 per calendar, and the selling assistance of some of the groups using the WACC, as well as board and community members, the calendar netted $80,000 in 5 months.
During this time, the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley school showed interest in purchasing the community center to develop as a Level 4 special education facility. While the negotiations were optimistic, it turned out not to be a fit for either the WACC or WHA.
In October, board members met with Arvig to discuss a possible sponsorship which included naming rights. By November 1st, Arvig announced that they had pledged $250,000 to the community center to be donated over five years. The funds will be a vital part of ensuring the community center remains financially stable and available to people in the coming years. In acknowledgment of the support, the Walker Area Community Center has been renamed the “Arvig Walker Area Community Center”.
“We believe giving back to the communities we serve is the right thing to do. Organizations promoting health and wellness for kids and families are so important to our quality of life,” said David Arvig, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Arvig. “The Walker Area Community Center is a pillar of the community and a special part of what makes Walker a great place to live and we are proud to support them.”
With the success of the calendar and the initial $50,000 from Arvig, the board was able to make some very important and exciting allocations with the total $130,000. $35,000 was used for debt reduction, $17,000 was used to purchase new fitness equipment and the remaining amount was used to service any and all outstanding bills and get the operating budget current with all their vendors. The new fitness equipment arrived in February and is already in use! In addition, a special “fitness fund” was setup to receive 10% of fitness memberships to be earmarked to update and service the fitness equipment throughout the year.
To continue this upward financial progress, the community center is also launching a new program for advertising in and around the building. Additionally, they will continue with their participation in the local events that financially benefit them including Chase the Police Triathlon, Leech Lake Walleye Tournament, Waddle Like a Duck Races and the WACC Golf Classic.
They will also continue to maintain their successful relationships with the organizations that regularly use the facility including Rotary International, Just for Kix, Walker School of Tae Kwon Do, Boys & Girls Club of Leech Lake Area, Fit 4 Glory, Crossfire Nutrition, Silver Sneakers, Walker Curling Club and the Pickleball program. They have a very strong partnership with Walker Youth Hockey and house the many hockey tournaments throughout the winter, including the Wildfire on Ice fundraising hockey tournament. Moving forward in 2020, the WACC board will be looking at all user fees for the facility and adjusting them accordingly from when they were set 18 years ago.
Less than a year after the board and community members met at the WACC to talk about closing it down, they can now continue their mission to provide civic, cultural, educational and recreational opportunities to Walker and the surrounding communities of Leech Lake.
“We really want to thank all those who have donated in the past, who have donated recently and plan to donate in the future. We want to recognize how important those contributions are to the viability of the Arvig WACC. We are really excited about our future!” comments Jeff Holly, board member.
If you would like to support the Arvig Walker Area Community Center with a donation, as an advertiser, or a volunteer, please contact Gretchen at 218-547-1853, find us on Facebook or contact us here!