Weingart Foundation Awards CLU a $500,000 Grant

THOUSAND OAKS, CA –– The Weingart Foundation has awarded California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) a $500,000 grant toward the construction of the new Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center. The 96,000–square–foot structure will be the centerpiece of the university’s new athletics complex that is currently being developed on CLU’s north campus.

The Gilbert Center will house two major gymnasiums, the Lundring Events Center, a fitness center, a dance studio, classrooms and labs, a sports medicine facility, the Ventura County Sports Hall of Fame, and offices for coaches and faculty. Besides fulfilling promises for sports facilities made more than 40 years ago, the Center will address several academic needs. The Center will provide CLU students with state–of–the–art classrooms and labs for preparation in teaching, physical therapy, exercise science and sports medicine careers.

The Weingart Foundation of Los Angeles seeks to build a better America by offering constructive assistance to nonprofit agencies and charitable organizations chiefly in Southern California. Along with providing grants to benefit homeless shelters, crisis intervention programs, health care programs and neighborhood youth organizations, the foundation provides assistance to private education.

This is the sixth grant that California Lutheran University has received from the Weingart Foundation. In 2001, the Foundation generously awarded CLU a $750,000 grant toward the construction of the Spies–Bornemann Center for Education and Technology which houses the university’s technology labs, a television studio, classrooms, and faculty offices for the School of Education and Communication Department.