YMCA collects $56.1 million - Duke Energy Foundation's $1 million gift caps off fundraising campaign's success

The YMCA of Greater Charlotte started its most ambitious fundraising campaign in early 2005, aiming for $50 million in contributions.

The organization has surpassed its goal -- and received a welcome bonus toward the end.

The Duke Energy Foundation announced Tuesday that it will donate $1 million to the Y, money the organization will use mainly to build a new program center at its Camp Thunderbird, a camp for children on Lake Wylie.

Wachovia CEO Ken Thompson, who chairs the YMCA's board of directors and fundraising campaign, announced the news Tuesday to YMCA and other officials at Wachovia headquarters uptown. They were gathered to celebrate the end of the campaign, which raised $56.1 million.

The money will go to an assortment of programs, including new centers in Mooresville and Ballantyne.

The single biggest project, though, is the Stratford Richardson YMCA on West Boulevard, a center that's expected to open in the summer. The campaign directed $8.3 million to the new Y, something westside residents have wanted for years. Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson kicked in $1 million in 2003.

Other donors of $1 million or more to the campaign include Wachovia, Bank of America, Lowe's and Microsoft.

For Dorothy Waddy, a leader in a coalition of westside neighborhoods, a Y anchoring the West Boulevard corridor could catalyze the area's transformation: "Businesses will say, 'I'd better locate on the corridor because a Y located there.' "

Annetta Alderman, a 69-year- old resident of nearby Clanton Park, said she takes water aerobics at The Marion Diehl Center on Tyvola Road, which sometimes takes her 30 minutes to drive to. The Y will be five blocks away. She could walk.

"We've never had anything like this," Alderman said. "It's about time."