Lake Michigan College has received a $100,000 donation from the 1st Source Bank Foundation to support the development of the college’s new athletics fields in the West Campus Athletics Complex.
LMC Vice President of Advancement and Community Impact Doug Schaffer tells us the college in 2024 began the effort to build new athletic fields due to frequent flooding in the old ones.
“We have transformed those athletic facilities from natural grass to fully AstroTurf, and we’ve relocated them to different areas down in that west campus area,” Schaffer said. “So that project is almost complete.”
The fields should be ready for use by the LMC sports programs and local high schools in the spring. Schaffer says this $6.2 million project will bring to Southwest Michigan an excellent sports facility to be used by the entire community.
“We’re just thrilled to bring an elite facility to Southwest Michigan, not only for our intercollegiate athletes to perform on, but also as additional student recreation space. And it will become available for local high schools or youth travel teams to utilize as well because these just are state-of-the-art facilities. And because of the new drainage system and the technology associated with these AstroTurf fields, pretty much when the snow melts, And within hours after even a significant rainfall, those fields are ready to be played on. And that’s a significant improvement from years past when due to the low-level nature of the ground out here at the Benton Harbor campus, a heavy rain might cause our baseball and softball team to relocate for weeks before we could get back on our fields, and now pretty much they’re ready to go within minutes of any kind of weather condition.”
Schaffer notes the 1st Source Bank Foundation is a longtime partner of Lake Michigan College.
“They’ve been generous supporters and sponsors of events like the golf outing and the winner’s circle auction. They also were supportive of the last capital campaign that we had back in 2015 that helped us build the Hanson Tech Center and renovate the main academic building.”
The $100,00 donation from the 1st Source Bank Foundation will give the bank a naming opportunity for the softball field scoreboard.
Schaffer says the college has raised about $1 million so far to offset the cost of the field renovations, and this contribution just gets them all the closer. He’s expecting a dedication to be held in the spring when the fields are ready for use.
