The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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November 5, 2009

Leonardo's ends project to raise funds

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse’s executive director announced Wednesday the end of a project to raise funds to purchase an adjoining building.

Executive Director Julie Baird said board members gave her permission to announce they could not reach an agreement with the seller.

“We’re very sorry,” she said.

Leonardo’s has been involved in the fundraising project since March, and the board voted in September to refuse the contract. Baird said they wanted to give the seller, Hayden Groendyke, time to respond before they made the announcement.

Groendyke said Wed-nesday World Harvest Church still is occupying the building. He and Leonardo’s are working through options, he said.

Donors have been notified the project was terminated, Baird said, and they can receive their donation back or choose to designate it to another Leonardo’s need.

“We still have some needs at Leonardo’s and the board has developed a new strategy, but we put most of last year into the (fundraising) plan,” she said. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and look at ways the current facility can be expanded to meet growing needs.”

“We love the idea of expanding next door and that opportunity presented itself, but it didn’t work out like we thought it would,” said Rick Goben, Leonardo’s board chairman. “His tenant was still there and that was part of our deal, we didn’t want to cause anyone to go out.”

Details just did not come together, he said, and Leonardo’s now is working on improving its current facilities. Many donors who contributed have left those donations with Leonardo’s for improvements where needed, he said, and new opportunities have come up.

“We wanted to get all of the use out of our space used. We still love the idea of possibly growing that way in the future,” Goben said.

Goben said the church is an awesome neighbor, and he emphasized there is nothing negative in terminating the present project.

“It just didn’t seem like the right time,” he said. “We’ll see what the future holds. We don’t want to close the door to future growth and expansion. We would love to do that.”

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