WINONA LAKE - Lakeland Christian Academy wants to bring all of their students - from the Early Learning Academy (ELA) to high school seniors - into one facility on the Winona Lake property.
To expand its campus, a communitywide capital campaign was announced Friday at the private school’s 50th year celebration at Rodeheaver Auditorium.
After the invited guests heard from several alum, staff, parents and Superintendent Joe Elrod about the past 50 years, current parent and LCA Board President Dr. Nate Bosch talked about the future and the capital campaign.
“To continue this evening of celebration, I’m thrilled to be able to announce that we are in the midst of a capital campaign. It’s been quiet until tonight,” he said. “To bring all of these students to one campus in Winona Lake. You might ask, why are we doing this campaign? This campaign is focused on improving the quality and quantity of our educational space for our Early Learning Academy and the lower (grade) students.”
When LCA merged with Warsaw Christian School in 2020, the Board made a long-term goal to bring all students onto one campus one day, he said. Currently, students in the ELA through third grade attend school at Community Grace Brethren Church in Warsaw, while fourth through 12th grades are based at the Winona Lake campus.
While Warsaw Christian has been at the church for almost 70 years, recently Community Grace “shared their desire to utilize that space differently, and, as a result, our lease will expire in 2026,” Bosch said. “This leaves us needing a space for 180 students and 30 staff members. This campaign aims to bring all students and staff onto our Winona Lake campus by the 2026 school year by constructing a new facility to house grades preschool through third grade.”
The community has benefitted from school choice for the past five decades, he said. “School choice, also known as vouchers, as Joe mentioned, allows parents to select the school that best serves their child and family,” Bosch said. “This new facility will allow us to partner on a deeper level with the community by providing several services that are currently not offered at the level of the demand that we see in our community.”
Investing in teachers, students and facilities are all necessary endeavors to continue the 50-year legacy of LCA into the next 50 years, he said. “Communities like ours thrive on free enterprise. Educational choice is a pillar of that system. If we fast-forward 18 years, LCA wants to see Kosciusko County full of strong, conservative leaders in positions of importance. Those leaders currently are in classrooms learning how to say the alphabet, how to hold a pencil, how to form friendships. But before long, they’ll be our lawyers arguing precential cases. Our city councilmen and women voting on policies, and our police officers enforcing laws.”
As to the specifics of the building and costs, Bosch said the facility will be two stories totaling about 30,000 square feet of educational space. The bottom floor will house the ELA, with the second story being the lower school. The building will be able to accommodate 100 more students than LCA currently has capacity for. The ELA will feature six to eight classrooms, allowing for substantial growth “in an area that this community desperately needs,” he stated. One room will be specifically dedicated to movement to accommodate LCA’s curriculum surrounding Lives in Motion.
Bosch said LCA has been working with DJ Construction for over the past year to develop a school that reflects best practices and modern designs.
The entire project will be around $8 million, with the goal to pay for it through fundraising and prudent borrowing.
He talked about the collaborations between younger and older students when they share one campus that will be “invaluable.”
The fundraising and project have a sense of urgency.
“In order for us to continue offering an excellent education, we need a facility. We’ll be out of Community Grace in 2026 and need a facility to continue educating our students,” he said.
There’s been some early investors in the campaign, which Board Vice President Lindsay Gergely talked about.
“Since the beginning of this campaign, our goal has been to impact the lives of our staff, our students, our families ... We have chosen a Christian education at Lakeland Christian Academy in order to continue this legacy that was started by the incredible men and women that we heard about tonight back in 1974. A new facility is necessary,” she said.
The campaign goal for the 30,000-square-foot $8 million facility is to raise $4 million, she said.
“Though we are not in the business of limiting God, and we have seen him over the last year do some really big things. So if anything additional that would just help us and limit the amount that we are borrowing,” Gergely said.
The LCA’s board members, campaign cabinet and development department have been working “incredibly hard” with conversations with early investors and organizations over the quiet phase of the campaign over the last several months, she stated. Many families have donated above and beyond their tuition payments to invest in the future of LCA. Gergely said alumni, staff members and community leaders have helped pave the way for the next 50 years.
“We have seen God move in some amazing, amazing ways. Specifically, though, in the last 30 days. So thanks to a very generous long-time supporter of LCA, who decided to throw out a little competition almost, starting their own match, in just the last few weeks we’ve been able to raise $100,000 in 30 days,” she said.
Along with conversations with early individual donors, Gergely said LCA has sought out partnerships with organizations that have the same values as LCA. K21 Health Foundation is providing a $100,000 grant for the construction of a playground. The Dekko Foundation launched a $250,000 matching grant. The Early Learning Initiative and the Eli Lilly Foundation awarded a $500,000 grant to LCA.
While the large donations are amazing, she said LCA has been touched by the donations given by families who had to restructure their budgets to give toward the campaign monthly.
Bosch and Elrod joined Gergely on the stage to announce that as of Friday, they have $3,050,000 in pledges toward the $4 million campaign.
“While this money is specifically being used for the actual facility, for the brick and mortar, for the steel beams, for all of the things and the little door knobs and those things to fill the building, what we’re actually doing is building a place where that 3-year-old is going to learn not just the alphabet, but who Jesus is and that Jesus lives in their heart,” she said. “This building is also going to have that 4-year-old that now is going to learn that God teaches us to show compassion to friends, to those that are different from us. And that kindergartener that’s having a bad day and gets to pray with their teacher about that bad day.”
While the building will have the books and the tests, most importantly, Gergely said, “This is going to be where Lakeland is going to continue their next 50-year legacy. So we thank you for being a part of that.”
For more information about giving, employment or enrollment, call 574-267-7265 or email [email protected].