SOTX Puchases Land for New Home

By Margaret Larsen

On Friday, June 28, we took a huge step here at Special Olympics Texas: we purchased the land where our new headquarters will be located here in Austin. A new chapter is beginning for the SOTX family. (The groundbreaking ceremony is set for 10 a.m. on Friday, September 6. I hope you will join us!)

As I signed the papers to purchase the land, I reflected on the progress our organization has made in the past 44 years.  We’ve gone from a track meet in Waco in June 1969 with 350 athletes to 2013, where we present more than 300 athletic competitions per year serving more than 44,500 athletes. It’s a lot to take in.

The new building will house more than SOTX…it will also house the dreams of thousands of SOTX athletes and their family members. Having more space will allow us to create additional opportunities and programs for our athletes.

Let me tell you more about the land and the planned building.

The 4.2-acre tract sits at the corner of Rutherford Lane and Centre Park Drive and will house a new 18,000-square-foot building for offices, meeting space and teleconferencing facilities, as well as a Family Resource Center and high-tech training rooms for coaches, volunteers, athletes and medical professionals.

We hope to start construction soon, and we expect to move into the building in December 2014.

We continue to raise the $6 million needed to construct the building. We’ve already brought in almost $2.5 million, thanks in large part to the GEO Group, which made a $2 million gift to our capital campaign. For more information about the Capital Campaign and the new facility, see our website at www.sotx.org/capitalcampaign.

There is still much work to be done. Won’t you please join me?

Margaret