Central College celebrated the completion of an important phase of the Forever Dutch Initiative.

A special ceremony marking the expansion of the Kuyper Athletics Complex was held in front of the new entrance to the sports facility Thursday.

Athletics Director Eric Van Kley tells KNIA/KRLS News the completion of the new lockers, wrestling room, batting cages, and Hall of Honor is a special milestone for the Central community.

“We’ve said over and over again with Forever Dutch, it’s not just a game changer, it’s a life changer, and this so significantly enhances our ability to keep severing our students and student athletes, and just impacting the young people that we work with, ” he says.

President Mark Putnam says attention will now turn to the renovation of the original portion of the Kuyper Athletics Building.

“We will have to work through the building section by section now that we’ve added to the facility 33,000 square feet and we’ve redone the entire mechanical infrastructure–we need to build into that now,” Putnam says. “So the existing complex will be renovated in parts as we go through.”

As part of the event, Central College dedicated the new atrium to the late Joan Kuyper Farver, who died in February. The Kuyper, Farver, and Griffith extended family was in attendance and spoke at the ceremony.

To contribute to the next phase of construction for the Forever Dutch Initiative, go to forever.central.edu.