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$1M gift WOWS center
By Bruce Walton
Youngstown
The usual tradition for a birthday is to receive gifts, but Roger Jones decided for his 88th birthday, he’d give a $1 million gift, with his wife Gloria, to the OH WOW! Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology.
“We feel it’s absolutely necessary to protect the future of the children’s center,” he said to the crowd Thursday afternoon at the center.
It has served as a hub for children aspiring to learn more about science, technology, engineering and mathematics and provided educational entertainment to more than 215,000 visitors since it first opened in 2011. The couple has given many gifts to make sure the center could achieve success.
With the new gift, the center will also establish an endowment fund to allow children and families to learn, play and enjoy the center for the next century.
“I guess that the success of OH WOW! and what it offers this community in terms of making learning fun has made us feel like we could not have made a better use of our money,” Gloria Jones said.
Suzanne Barbati, president and executive director of the center, made the announcement with the Joneses at the news conference at the center.
The center gets a lot of revenue through the annual Community Partnership Program, which lets individuals and corporate donors invest in the center. But now with the new gift and the endowment, Barbati said the center can take a bigger step forward. The fund will be reserved for capital and maintenance needs. OH WOW! will use it mostly for new exhibits and to ensure current exhibits continue to be operate.
“We’ve all been to museums where things didn’t work,” she said. “We are very aware of the need to not have that happen here and to make sure we have new experiences when our guests come. And so those dollars will be designated for that purpose.”
Barbati said the center already has several donors who have made a pledge to the endowment and she hopes to expand that number.