Update from the Board President on the Capital Campaign and Next Steps for the Campus Vision Project

Ahead of Sunday’s celebration of the 75th Anniversary Capital Campaign’s success, it seems appropriate to take a minute to celebrate all those who made the Campaign successful.  That includes each of you in the congregation, and especially the Capital Campaign team and all the stewards.  Without their hard work and your pledges, we wouldn’t be in such a great place.  Our campaign has resulted in pledges of more than $2.3 million.  Wow!  That represents over 400% of our annual giving, which is beyond what most congregations are able to raise.  So well done!  We are moving forward with the core project of our Campus Vision plan.  As a reminder, that includes: 

  • A new, community-centered kitchen in the Main Hall
  • A redesigned choir room
  • A new shower and laundry for unhoused guests
  • Campus-wide electrical upgrade to enable carbon neutrality, including:
  • Main Hall heating and cooling using energy-efficient electric heat pumps with air filtering
  • Main Hall electric heat pump water heater for kitchen, laundry, and shower
  • The electrical changes alone will reduce our carbon footprint by half — a tremendous leap on our journey to a carbon-neutral campus!
  • Main Hall earthquake strapping
  • Reconfigured back hallway and storage in the Main Hall

 We’re obviously excited by our success and looking forward to designing and building these upgrades. You may remember that we had set an even higher, stretch goal to try to raise $2.8 million, to broad the scope even more.  While our Campaign team is still in conversations about a handful of final pledges, and while the doors are always open to anyone who wants to increase their prior pledge, it seems likely that we won’t climb to that stretch goal, so our plans are targeted on the core project described above. Had we been able to raise even more than we’ve done, we could have included the additional option, as chosen in the February congregational poll, of revamping the breezeway restrooms and upgrading the HVAC for Rooms 7-10. Looking forward to seeing you Sunday and celebrating the Campaign’s success during Second Sunday lunch, including cake, ice cream and strawberries. This month’s celebration lunch is free to all, and we hope all our UUCPA members, friends and visitors will join us.  

–Buzz