WEST LIBERTY – A collaborative effort unveiled Saturday evening will build a new $700,000 field house at West Liberty-Salem.
The WL-S community has rallied after a Jan. 20 school shooting that left 17-year-old student Logan Cole critically injured. Cole is still on the road to recovery and has returned to school. Various fund-raising efforts begun after he was injured are being coordinated to assist Cole, the family of the boy alleged to have fired the gun at the school and the WL-S school community.
On Saturday evening, Cole was given a check for $11,500 from the #TigerStrong t-shirt and sign sales. Then, Cole made a special announcement regarding how he is assisting the school. After the Jan. 20 shooting, a Go Fund Me account was started to raise money to be split into thirds. One-third is to assist the Cole family with medical expenses, one-third is for the Ely Serna family and one-third is for WL-S school.
Cole donated $17,000 to the school from the $51,000 Go Fund Me account, plus half of the $11,500 amount from the t-shirt and sign sales given to him ($5,750) for a total of $22,750 earmarked for the newly-unveiled WL-S Tiger Strong Field House Fund. The plans for the field house were revealed with a construction date dependent upon the achievement of fund-raising goals.
According to Ryan Cole, Logan’s father, there are special plans for the foyer of the building. It will be a place of honor with one wall for recognizing the Jan. 20 heroes who responded to the incident with artwork by local artist Mike Major; another wall for donor recognition and a third wall to depict all the good that later came from the shooting at WL-S.
The field house will be constructed on the current site of the baseball field, which is to the north of the football field.
All funds from the Reverse Raffle will go to the field house fund. Also included in the evening was a live auction, silent auction, 50/50 raffle and other items were raffled off. The dinner was served by WL-S athletes. The WL-S Show Choir performed and the second Annual Athletic Association Scholarship Award was presented.
More than 200 people attended the 1st Annual WL-S Athletic Association Reverse Raffle.
