Jones Center Scholarships Available

Center to Host After School Program, Summer Day Camp

— Scholarships are now available for Jones Center programs.

The scholarships will provide financial assistance to pay membership fees at the center as well as for day care and summer camp programs.

“The scholarships are a big focus for us,” said Joy Heuer, membership director of the center. “We’re asking for people that need help not to be bashful. Come in and apply.”

Heuer announced the availability at a media luncheon Wednesday.

The membership fees, which began Oct. 1, are $200 a year and $300 a year for a family. The center started a special fund to pay for scholarships, said Ed Clifford, president and chief executive officer of the Jones Trust. Susan Barrett, chairwoman of the trust’s board, made the initial donation.

Scholarships will also be available for new children’s programs announced by Camp War Eagle. The organization, which has operated a summer camp on Beaver Lake since 2006, will start an after-school program for Springdale schools, said Alden Napier, associate director of Camp War Eagle.

“We will start with Jones Elementary,” Napier said. “We expand from there.”

The camp, which organizes athletic programs at the center, also plans to hold a summer day camp at the center. The program would include 100 children a week for 10 weeks.

“Children will be able to sign up for more than one week,” Napier said.

The after-school program and the day camp will cost $40 per week, Napier said.

“Kids will not just play,” Napier said. “They will learn and grow.”

The center did not charge to use the facilities until 2008. That became unsustainable, Clifford said.

“It costs us $10,000 a day to turn on the lights,” Clifford said.

It costs about $3.5 million per year to operate the center, said Kelly Kemp-McLintock, chief advancement officer of the center. The Jones Trust, which operates the Jones Center in Springdale, nonprofit locations in Rogers and Springdale and the Jones Education Building in Springdale, is attempting to increase its endowment fund by $30 million.

The Walton Family Foundation and Care Foundation, a fund of the Endeavor Foundation, donated $10 million each. Another $10 million will meet the Walton Foundation’s matching challenge, Kemp-McLintock said.

The Jones Center is a 220,000-square-foot family facility that has conference rooms, a swimming pool, an ice skating rink, a gymnasium, a computer center and classrooms. The center is planning to expand its fitness center and move it upstairs to the main level, Clifford said.

“We think that we can expand our fitness center and create a broader base for it,” Clifford said.

Bernice Jones opened the center with money from the sale of Jones Truck Line which she owned with her husband, Harvey Jones. Bernice Jones died in 2003.

“We think we are still faithful to Mrs. Jones vision,” Barrett said.

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