Community challenged to donate to Jasper County Conservation project

From now until the end of the year, Jeff and Jodi King will match all donations made to Jasper County Conservation dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, for the environmental education center project, which is nearing construction after almost $2.6 million was raised through grants and generous community donors.

In order to participate, donors are asked to make donations directly to the Jasper Community Foundation earmarked for the environmental education center.

So if the challenge is met by the end of the year, Jasper County Conservation could raise $200,000 towards the project, doubling the community’s impact. Jeff and Jodi, who owned Keystone Laboratories, Inc, for 32 years, announced the challenge in a letter to community members sent last week.

They told Newton News their motivation behind the donation stems back to their history with Keystone Labs, whose services of environmental testing somewhat intertwine with the philosophy of conservation. Jeff is a believer in conservation’s pursuits to educate the public and promote preservation of natural resources.

“As we become more and more dependent on all these electronic things in our lives, we become less and less knowledgable about the world around us and how we can conserve it so our kids and our grandkids and their kids can enjoy the same kinds of things that we did when we were younger,” Jeff said

To him, there is no better way to encourage and facilitate that message than with county conservation’s nature center project. In the Kings’ letter, he said the center will also be a significant tourism attraction and welcome center for Jasper County, and a hub to promote all county conservation areas.

Jeff and Jodi also have a personal connection to the project. The center will be named after their daughter, Dana King Ceretti, who died of cystic fibrosis on Dec. 30, 2009, at age 30. Dana was a graduate of Newton High School and the University of Northern Iowa, and she taught at Thomas Jefferson Elementary.

“She would be thrilled about a project like this and really understand the value of it,” Jodi said. “We look at it as a really important and cool way to remember her.”

Both Jeff and Jodi envision the Dana King Ceretti Environmental Education Center will make a wonderful addition to Jasper County and beyond. Jeff said the programs, services, attractions and events the center can facilitate will greatly benefit the surrounding areas and educate both older and younger generations.

“It’s a legacy,” he added. “It’s something we can do to give back to the community. We’ve been here for 45 years. Our kids grew up here. We think it’s important to give back to the community that we have lived in for so long. We’re blessed that we’re able to do that.”

Keri Van Zante, director of Jasper County Conservation, said other areas of the center have received sizable donations for naming rights. For instance, the Geisler-Penquite Foundation fully funded a $700,000 Geisler-Penquite Land Stewardship Lab for the second phase of the project.

The surrounding park will be named after Carol and Frederick “Fritz” Kramer.

The bids for the nature center project came back at about $2.9 million without an elevator. With an elevator, it is estimated to cost $3 million. Which means that conservation still needs to fundraise for another $400,000. Van Zante said this donation challenge will help conservation make it to that finish line.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the nature center is expected to take place in the very near future.

Newton News previously reported the first phase of the project includes the main building with classrooms, laboratory space, offices for staff, a meeting room and an outdoor observation deck. The subsequent phases include a maintenance building, public restrooms and a three-season pavilion.

With 7,200 square feet of space, the center provides areas for public and staff use. The 40-acre site plan includes two ponds, a sculpture walk, a community garden, a natural playscape, a wetland exploration area, a natural amphitheater, shelter house, a soft trail system, prairie restoration and group camp.