For more information, please contact:
Marie McGeehan
Director of Communications
Boys & Girls Town of Missouri
Phone: 314-535-7911
Fax: 314-535-6632
marie.mcgeehan@great-circle.org

Donors Help Boys & Girls Town Meet Challenge Grant:
Campus Celebrates Opening of Two New Cottages to Serve More Area Children

Columbia, Mo. (September 25, 2008) Boys & Girls Town of Missouri celebrated the opening of two new cottages to serve more area children thanks to local community supporters and donors from around the state.  Earlier this year, Boys & Girls Town’s Central Missouri Campaign was awarded a $210,000 challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation, Inc., in support of the Columbia campus renovation and expansion. Donors responded to the challenge which provided funds for the renovation of the cottages.

At today’s celebration the agency honored key local and statewide donors who helped the agency meet the challenge grant. The honorees included Boone County National Bank, Dave Baugher and Jaqueline Verdun, William T. Kemper Foundation, Richard G. Miller, Dr. Wes Stricker and Pamela Hines-Stricker, among others.

Boys & Girls Town of Missouri’s Columbia campus provides treatment programs for troubled adolescents. The newly renovated cottages which opened in August doubled the number of children in residential treatment from 24 to 48. The two-story cottages measure 5,200 square feet. Peckham & Wright Architects Inc. of Columbia and GBH Builders, Inc. of Jefferson City provided design and construction services.

In 2007 children were referred to Boys & Girls Town of Missouri from 28 counties in Missouri including Boone, Cole, Callaway, Adair, Warren, Audrain, Cooper, Randolph, Saline, Macon, St. Charles, and Knox among others, and served 519 children and family members through on-campus residential treatment, community outreach treatment and prevention programs. That number is expected to double with the opening of the new cottages and the addition of new treatment programs.

To date the Central Missouri Campaign has raised more than $3.5 million for renovations.  Fundraising continues through the end of the year for a dining and recreation hall for the children residing on campus.

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About Boys & Girls Town of  Missouri
Founded in 1949, Boys & Girls Town of Missouri is a nationally accredited organization that provides extensive treatment through residential, foster care case management, outreach and family therapy programs for troubled youth with a history of abuse, neglect, severe behavior disorders and psychological problems. The organization's mission to "improve the lives of children with emotional and behavioral problems through superior, family-focused services" is fulfilled through campuses in St. James, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia, MO.  BGTM helps redirect the lives of more than 4,000 boys and girls and their families annually.  For more information, please visit the website at www.bgtm.org