Overland Park Community Center Awarded $1 Million Challenge Grant

January 3, 2004

The Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, has received a $1 million challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Kansas City Star reports.

The grant will support a $9 million theater project planned for the campus the JCC shares with eight other community-based nonprofits.

The Mabee Foundation, which supports nonprofit construction projects with challenge grants in the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, was created in 1948 by John and Lottie Mabee, Missouri natives who made their fortune in the oil business. When they died, the bulk of their estates were left to the foundation, the assets of which now stand at more than $600 million.

Lynn Franey. "$1 Million Grant Extends Foundation's Long Legacy." Kansas City Star 12/30/2003.