New community center in the works for Fort Bend County
A new community center is in the works for Fort Bend County thanks in part to a $25,000 Helen Walton Grant from the Walmart Foundation to the newly formed Fulshear Katy Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
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New community center in the works for Fort Bend County
A new community center is in the works for Fort Bend County thanks in part to a $25,000 Helen Walton Grant from the Walmart Foundation to the newly formed Fulshear Katy Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
The Dr. Harold Daily Community Center will sit on a six-acre lot next to the Fort Bend County Pct. 1 Park at 4026 Nails Road in Simonton. Daily donated a 66-acre lot of land to the county. That lot includes the six acres on which the center will sit.
Don McCoy, Fulshear Katy Chamber of Commerce president, said the center would be a place for community gatherings, chamber activities, and classes. Playing on the name, McCoy said the center’s motto would be, “A place to learn daily.”
Employees at Walmart, 26824 FM 1093, put in and tracked volunteer hours as part of a Walmart-chain competition for foundation grant money. Part of the competition included completed paperwork describing how the grant money would be used.
Letisha Smith, Walmart store manager, said she received word of the award last November, just after she began at the store. She said the store and its associates were committed to continuing the community service activities they had begun.
Smith said store associates were able to select the charity with which they wanted to work when the grant money arrived. McCoy said local Walmart managers spoke with chamber officials on how they might work together, and the idea to move on developing a community center came about.
The Helen Walton Grant is the largest prize of those given by the foundation. Only one is given out amidst all the grant money. Helen Walton was the wife of Sam Walton, the chain’s founder.
The center will have a small park as part of the lot, which will be named the Helen Park in honor of Walton.
John Whaley, who leads the chamber’s foundation for philanthropic efforts, said thngs are moving full speed ahead, with or without the building. But as for the building, he said, plans are in the works. No dates have been set for a groundbreaking.
“For the most part, we’re still in the planning phase,” Whaley said.
