MCC is one step closer to its groundbreaking goal of building a new athletic, fitness and recreation facility with a $50,000 M&T Bank commitment. M&T Bank Rochester Regional President Daniel J. Burns says the PAC Center will serve the entire community and is necessary in limiting the exodus of those living in the Rochester area.
“Of the more than 36,000 students attending MCC, the majority of graduates stay here in our area, pursuing careers, raising families and contributing to the well-being of the Rochester area,” said Burns, a director on the Monroe Community College Foundation Board. “It’s our obligation to ensure the youth in our area stay here and thrive. This new facility is essential to making our community stronger.”
In January, community business leader, Arunas Chesonis, and his wife, Pamela Ann Chesonis, an MCC alumna, pledged the Chesonis Family Foundation’s support for the building of the new facility on MCC’s Brighton Campus. The family’s foundation will match every dollar donated after December 1, 2006 to the challenge, up to $1.5 million. The facility will be named The PAC Center in honor of Pamela A. Chesonis.
In May 2006, the MCC Foundation began a $12 million capital campaign with a $6 million grant from New York state which requires matching local funds. To date, 72 percent of the needed $6 million in private gifts has been secured.
“We are extremely fortunate for the leadership Dan Burns and M&T Bank have demonstrated by their response to this challenge,” said Brenda Babitz, president of MCC Foundation. “M&T understands the importance of this new facility, the impact it will have on the community and how essential community leaders are in making The PAC Center a reality.”
Burns boasted that the new facility is a state-of-the-art venue that will serve the needs of so many in the community. “The PAC is truly a first-rate facility that is needed to attract potential students to our area and satisfy the needs of the current students,” he said, adding M&T Bank strives to support education, children and the arts. “We at M&T believe that we can’t succeed as a business unless our community is thriving.”
Burns said he believes philanthropy in the Rochester area begins with community leaders. “Arunas’s challenge has inspired me to give more of myself on a personal level as well,” he said. “I wanted to follow his lead and support this much-needed facility not only as president of M&T Bank, but as a member of this community.”
For more information on The PAC or how to donate to the facility, please visit <<https://www.monroecc.edu/go/foundation>> or call the MCC Foundation at x1500.
Diane Shoger
MCC Foundation
03/30/2007 |