Ivy Tech's capital project campaign received a "significant investment" Wednesday when Toby and Donna Buck of Paragon Medical presented a check for $250,000.
The college, which has grown by leaps and bounds in its 30 years in Warsaw, has nearly outgrown its quarters at 3755 Lake City Highway.
The goal of the capital campaign is to raise $2.8 million to purchase land and start construction on a permanent campus for the community college.Executive Dean Randy Maxson introduced Toby Buck, president and CEO of the orthopedic company.
"I believe in community," Buck said. "We know a lot about the orthopedic industry here, but a lot of people don't know a lot about Warsaw, and what it's like to live and raise a family here.
"We've been blessed, Paragon and the Buck family, and when you're blessed you give back."
Several Ivy Tech students were asked to hold a large replica check and Buck ceremoniously signed it.
The money from Paragon will be released in increments over a number of years, starting in 2008.
The Paragon gift will be added to a $100,000 pledge from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation.
Ivy Tech's lease of the former Sprint building, north of U.S. 30, expires in 2012. The college has more than 1,000 students. Recently, the campus expanded to include the Orthopedic and Advanced Manufacturing Training Center in McElroy Hill Industrial Park, Warsaw.
Classrooms are full of certified medical assisting and nurse assistance program students, who have been added in the last two years. Students who used to travel to either Fort Wayne or South Bend now take their classes in Warsaw.
A two-year college, Ivy Tech offers associate degrees in arts, applied science, science and fine arts as well as a one-year technical and career development certificates.
Maxson said 95 percent of Ivy Tech's graduates stay in Kosciusko County to work and raise families.
The capital campaign's focus group recommends purchasing 40 acres for a new campus. They have identified a parcel west of Warsaw.
The college is assisted by state funding, not wholly state-supported. The community must show its support of a new, permanent campus by raising the money to buy the land and some equipment. Additional state appropriations could come in four to six years.
